On golf, principle, & patriotism

I woke up at four o’clock on a Saturday to attend the Presidents Cup in Charlotte. It’s a golf tournament between the United States and several of the best players from around the world. It’s a rarity in the game. It’s a team event. The players compete in “Foursomes”, “Four Ball” and “Singles” and they win by winning holes. More importantly, as fans you get to pick sides. You cheer for your own country. And you pull against people. It’s like a combination of the Olympics, a PGA Tour event, and college football.

I arrived at the Quail Hollow Club as the gates opened for the third round. The trophy, a 24-carat gold cup, sat prominently on the first tee box ordained with flowers. But everything else about the atmosphere at the first hole felt more like Happy Gilmore than The Legend of Bagger Vance. There were pre-game songs blaring from loudspeakers: “More Than a Feeling” by Boston, “Start Me Up” by The Rolling Stones, and “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds. There were wafts of vape and cigar smoke in the grandstand and plenty of cans of Michelob Ultra and Stella Artois. A jumbotron came on and introduced the players. They included Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, and world number one ranked Scottie Scheffler among the Americans and Adam Scott, Hideki Matsuyama, and Sungjae Im among the internationals. The players hit driver on the opening 500-yard par four. Some turned to watch it land on the giant screen.

After the morning groups teed off it was time to walk around the course. I found an opening on seven and then later made my way to what’s called “The Green Mile” a tough three-hole stretch with a giant pond, a long par three, and a zig-zag creek. The course looked challenging but not spectacular. Quail Hollow is not Augusta National and it is not Pebble Beach. But it’s the best course in a growing city and that means it’s in great condition. It’s like your favorite meal at your favorite restaurant. Not to die for. But always tasty. And good enough for championship golf.

In the afternoon the fans in the grandstand sang “Sweet Caroline” and danced to “Shout” by The Isley Brothers and “Y.M.C.A” by Village People. I wondered what the internationals and their families thought of the scene. The stands at a sporting event like that are an interesting sample of American culture. They’re a great place for people watching. And for that event, people watching to see frequent displays of patriotism. Throughout the day I saw fans draped in American flags. I saw fans wearing outfits made out of the stars and stripes. I saw a guy in a bald eagle mask and another dressed like Uncle Sam. I saw a Marine in full military dress. Throughout the day the crowd cheered when an American hit the fairway and when an international found a bunker. When Spieth chipped in on hole 15 to win his match I joined in the chant of “U-S-A” … “U-S-A” … “U-S-A”.

For that one event the rah-rah spectacle of American pride felt like it meant something, something more. At least it did for me anyway. It wasn’t just any golf tournament. And it wasn’t just any Presidents Cup. At times in the crowd I heard references to the players who weren’t competing in Charlotte. You may have heard about this controversy. Several of the best players in golf have started a new tour, LIV Golf. It’s a series of super events with guaranteed contracts and large cash prizes. It’s also funded by the Saudis.

The money comes from sovereign wealth fund controlled by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He’s an authoritarian ruler in a country where a young woman was recently sentenced to 34 years in prison for using Twitter, where human rights violations are still common, and where they try to make us forget all about all that by buying Newcastle Football Club and starting LIV Golf. That’s “Sportswashing” and that makes it wrong.

There’s also its impact on golf. If successful LIV Golf would gut the PGA Tour. It would destroy minor events because the best players wouldn’t come. It would pull the ladder up from younger pros and journeymen who are still trying to make it on tour. And that makes it wrong. So the PGA Tour took a stand and suspended the LIV players who still wanted access to PGA sponsored events including the Presidents Cup. That’s why some Americans and some internationals didn’t play in the Presidents Cup. That’s why there was no Dustin Johnson, or Brooks Koepka, or Cam Smith.

That’s why I felt a proud affinity for this year’s team. The players who did show up in Charlotte likely had offers to join LIV. So far they’ve turned them down. That’s not nothing. Tiger Woods was reportedly offered $800 million to join LIV (which he turned down). Johnson reportedly signed for $125 million. Koepka for $100 million. Others signed similar contracts. To turn that kind of money down is a big price to pay for loyalty. How much of that loyalty was to the PGA and how much was to ideals (and not selling out to Saudi Arabia) we don’t really know. But a relationship with the Saudis had to be a factor.

Here’s what golf legend Phil Mickelson said about joining LIV: “They are scary motherfuckers to get involved with. We know they killed Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.” Knowing all of that Mickelson signed for $200 million. The choice he made and that others made to go to LIV was to me out of bounds. It crossed a moral line.

That’s not the say that there aren’t sponsors on the PGA Tour who do bad things. There are plenty that come to mind. But there’s a difference between playing in a tournament hosted by an oil company and signing a contract to work for murderers (joining a tour run by human rights abusers). Just as there’s a difference between the attorney who defends the guilty and the innocent, and the one who works for mob bosses. And a difference between the United States doing business with the Saudis to keep the lights on and taking their money for personal gain.

It’s like being the lobbyist for Big Tobacco. It’s knowing what you do is wrong but taking the money anyway. Those people exist. But we don’t celebrate them. We don’t put them on a Wheaties box, we don’t buy their jersey, and we don’t take our children to the driving range hoping they’ll grow up to be like them. We should treat professional athletes the same way. We shouldn’t want them to represent this country in sports. And for one week in Charlotte they didn’t.

The United States of America has taken a beating in recent years. It’s not popular to love our country right now. We’re coming to terms with our own history and our own sins. We’re making sense of what that means. But there are plenty of reasons why we should be proud. Proud to be an American. Yes, we have a past, but we also have a present, and it’s pretty good. We’ve come a long way. We reached the 21st century. We are not Russia, North Korea, and Iran, and we are not Saudi Arabia. We believe in freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, the rule of law, and democracy (or at least most of us do). That doesn’t mean we always live up to those ideals but at least here in America we usually know better. And sometimes we act like it. Like not supporting LIV.

The United States ended up winning the Presidents Cup the next day. It got pretty close during those final singles matches but the United States still had enough talent (even without the LIV guys) to close it out. I’m glad I got to experience a part of the event. I’m glad I got to be there in Charlotte to watch a team wear our colors and represent not just this country but also for once the ideals we profess to espouse.

And that’s the thing about this moment. There’s such a low bar for standing up for what’s right today that we should acknowledge when someone steps over it. If it has to come from sports and not politics so be it. If it comes from professional golfers who celebrated their victory on Sunday with champagne and cigars, that’ll do for now. It’s a start anyway. It made me feel good there were teams of players who turned down LIV’s money because of what the alternative meant. Even if unintentional it was an example of doing the right thing. And that made me patriotic. Not because of blood and soil but because of our ideals and our principles. Some things are out of bounds and it matters when we act like it.

I don’t know what will happen with LIV and professional golf. It’s possible a compromise is worked out. That the LIV guys are allowed back on the PGA. That they get to play in the Ryder Cup and future Presidents Cups representing the United States (and Europe, and the International Team). But for one week in Charlotte at least those players were out and the ones who competed had done something right (at least for now, and hopefully for good). Anyway we’ll see. But the event is worth remembering. The 2022 Presidents Cup was not Jesse Owens at the Olympics in Berlin and it was not the Black Power salute on the medals podium at the Olympics in Mexico City, it was not Muhammad Ali acting on principle over Vietnam and it was not Colin Kaepernick taking a knee. But now it’s somewhere on the list.