Watching golfers Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood squirm after a question is pretty funny

[WRMusic]

THey basically said they would play for murderers

So the US government aren’t “murderers?” I bet those 500,009+ completely innocent Iraqi CIVILIANS that we killed would disagree with that.

[goduke]

It's not so easy as you make it. What is the first step in reconciliation? Communication. How can you promote, foster change unless you can have open lines of communication? The Saudis have there way of life but the more they are exposed to our lives, they end up opening up. Maybe we might learn a thing or 2 from them in the process. Why do people feel the need to cancel people, countries because they don't agree with you? I can disagree with their leaders but still have positive communication and good will. Maybe this is the first step in that process.

Now the PGA are like pimps. They want to smack their hoes for making money on the side. Then they try to shame them in the process. That's some big pimping shit.

I meant in terms of the players responses. They joined this league for cash. The thing is though this league won’t last 5 years. The saudis are going to invest in this for 2-3 years utilizing “sports washing” and then the money will dry up and the league will be garbage.
Saudis have a short attention span with sports, it’s their way to make themselves look normal to western culture while they do shady shit

[Mac4Lyfe]

I meant in terms of the players responses. They joined this league for cash. The thing is though this league won’t last 5 years. The saudis are going to invest in this for 2-3 years utilizing “sports washing” and then the money will dry up and the league will be garbage.
Saudis have a short attention span with sports, it’s their way to make themselves look normal to western culture while they do shady shit

I wouldn't expect them to play for free. Most of us work for cash. We have no idea where all the money goes and who is really in control. None of us know the Saudis intentions. There could be some good out of all of this. I don't know but I truly believe in free enterprise and I embrace competition.

[jjgold]

Pga kicked them out

Kick them
Out of majors too

All the American players lost their endorsements also that left I love it

[TheMoneyShot]

I just clicked on this thread for the first time.

I don't know what the point is of this thread? Are you saying because they didn't answer.... they are sell outs?? Should be banned from the PGA Tour?

I would say take a look around you.... who isn't a sell out in any profession their in? Everyone is sort of owned in a way. They can play for whoever they want. If a league bans them in doing so.... FUKK EM. Why must any association have leverage on any golfer?

I'd go where the money is too. Anyone who says they stuck somewhere because of loyalty is full of sh##. That got paid one way or another... either it was from that sport... or a sponsor. We don't get told all the details to every story.

[Ra77er]

TMS seems to be on some good medication. Solid posts lately.

I do appreciate loyalty however and I can understand why the PGA would be upset at losing some of its players. It could be a reflection of that organization and perhaps they need to do some soul searching themselves if they players are going to continue to jump ship like they are.

No comment on the morality of the decision.

[DrunkHorseplayer]

Coming next: the Saudis establish a rival league in one of the four major sports.

[semibluff]

Is 'Jack' the same Jack that played the Sun City Million in apartheid South Africa? Hmmm.

[semibluff]

Oh, the irony of SKY Sports complaining about a breakaway faction:

"Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group, and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It has played a major role in the increased commercialisation of British sport since 1991, and has sometimes played a large role inducing organisational changes in the sports it broadcasts, most notably when it encouraged the Premier League to break away from the Football League in 1992" - Wikipedia

SKY Sports has exclusive rights tv coverage of a large number of PGA events that are broadcast in the UK. Business is business.

[Mac4Lyfe]

I just clicked on this thread for the first time.
I don't know what the point is of this thread? Are you saying because they didn't answer.... they are sell outs?? Should be banned from the PGA Tour?
I would say take a look around you.... who isn't a sell out in any profession their in? Everyone is sort of owned in a way. They can play for whoever they want. If a league bans them in doing so.... FUKK EM. Why must any association have leverage on any golfer?
I'd go where the money is too. Anyone who says they stuck somewhere because of loyalty is full of sh##. That got paid one way or another... either it was from that sport... or a sponsor. We don't get told all the details to every story.

All of us have put Saudi oil in our cars. How many items are in our house from China or India sweatshops? There's not much we can do unless we work with them and gradually force them to change. Or put sanctions on them that ultimately hurt us in the end.

[Mac4Lyfe]

Coming next: the Saudis establish a rival league in one of the four major sports.

I am all for competition.

[goduke]

I wouldn't expect them to play for free. Most of us work for cash. We have no idea where all the money goes and who is really in control. None of us know the Saudis intentions. There could be some good out of all of this. I don't know but I truly believe in free enterprise and I embrace competition.

Of course not to play for free, but then they should just say it. No reason to sit up there and stutter away. Say it was offer they had to take and couldn’t refuse.
As for the saudis intention I think that’s actually out there already, look it up around sports washing

[Optional]

They should just say it though. “We are here for the money, we don’t care about people who die, you guys are stupid for ever thinking we cared about anyone then ourselves.”
At least that answer would be honest

Kind of agree. But think they should just say obviously we don't think it's against our morals or we would not be here.

No ones business how much we get paid for our jobs really.

[The Kraken]

It would be refreshing to hear an honest answer but we're not entitled to one.

Reality is 99% of people criticizing them would make the exact same decision if it was theirs to make. However, its easy to lob judgement and criticisms when you're on the interweb and live in an ivory tower

[lakerboy]

Funny thread. NBA players rely on China.

[jjgold]

That tourney was terrible

[KVB]

Funny thread. NBA players rely on China.

But the NBA spins it the other way.

It is the commissioner's official stance that they will take massive financial losses in order to stand up for value like freedom of expression. Silver believes these values are projected abroad by sports and that the NBA enduring hundreds of millions in losses during that China blackout (after he supported the Rockets' Morey's tweet about Hong Kong) has shown that the values are more important than the money.

He feels that has encouraged others to speak out against China and against other places as well.

He said this in his pre NBA Finals press conference...

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/03/sport/adam-silver-nba-china-brittney-griner-spt-intl/index.html

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/nba-commissioner-adam-silver-league-lost-millions-dollars-china

[KVB]

That tourney was terrible

It was just golf, Gold, you'll survive.

Meanwhile, PGA Tour putting on a show this week. Could be in for a pretty good Sunday after today's moving day.

[Bluehorseshoe]

Funny thread. NBA players rely on China.

Did most of them do 9/11?

[Art Vandelay]

First LIV tourney on US soil is in late June in Portland - Crowd will be interesting, both numbers and reaction...

[ttwarrior1]

owned,

[stake1]

Selling their pga tour cards to the highest bidder. Always about the money

[The Kraken]

Portland????

gross

[jjgold]

All garbage players that cannot win pga tour except maybe Johnson and he is on the downside

[Bluehorseshoe]

PGA Tour players competing in this week’s controversial Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf Series tournament have been suspended from the tour. Now, they’ve drawn the ire of a prominent 9/11 survivors group.

On Friday, 911familiesunited.org, a coalition of families and survivors of the 2001 terrorist attacks, sent a scathing letter to representatives of Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed and Kevin Na expressing their outrage toward the golfers for participating in the new league and accusing them of sportswashing and betraying the US.

“As a freedom-loving American, I am grateful to have the freedom of choice where I work and who I work for, and I respect your right as well,” wrote Terry Strada, the organization’s national chair and a mother of three whose husband, Tom, was on the 104th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center during the attacks. “As a 9/11 widow, I feel compelled to help you understand the level of depravity the Kingdom engaged in when it knowingly sent government agents here to establish the support network needed for those hijackers.


“As you may know, Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers were Saudis. It was the Saudis who cultivated and spread the evil, hate-filled Islamist ideology that inspired the violent jihadists to carry out the deadly 9/11 attacks. And, most egregiously, it is the Kingdom that has spent 20 years in denial: lying about their activities, and cowardly dodging the responsibility they bear. Yet these are your partners, and much to our disappointment, you appear pleased to be in business with them.

“Given Saudi Arabia’s role in the death of our loved ones and those injured on 9/11—your fellow Americans—we are angered that you are so willing to help the Saudis cover up this history in their request for ‘respectability.’ When you partner with the Saudis, you become complicit with their whitewash, and help give them the reputational cover they so desperately crave—and are willing to pay handsomely to manufacture. The Saudis do not care about the deep-rooted sportsmanship of golf or its origins as a gentleman’s game built upon core values of mutual respect and personal integrity. They care about using professional golf to whitewash their reputation, and they are paying you to help them do it.”


Earlier this year, Mickelson set off a storm of criticism when he told a writer that the Saudi government are “scary motherf—kers” and admitted that the golf league was being used for “sportswashing” by the regime, but that he was using the rival circuit as leverage against the PGA Tour, which he accused of being a monopoly.