Thought for the Day
There is only one motivation, and that is desire. No reasons or principle contain it or stand against it
Oh No! Cameron
Having last month celebrated Cameron Smith’s great win at The Open, it’s now time to bemoan his almost certain defection to LIV golf, once the FedEx playoffs have been concluded. He has been offering, in words pinched from All The President’s Men, a non-denial denial ever since collecting the claret jug and his leap over to the dark side now seems depressingly inevitable.
I don’t think it’s appropriate for me or anyone else to question another person’s motives or to damn them for wanting to take a guaranteed shedload of money. What I do think appropriate is to debate, discuss and criticise, at times, the things they say about defecting, especially if they have been mendacious and two-faced – as Phil Mickelson was – in the run-up to their jumping ship.
Frankly, a lot of the justifications or reasons we have been given for people migrating to LIV are complete garbage.
Reason one: ‘To grow the game.’ This mostly means taking events to courses that are currently considered not good enough to host major tournaments, or to countries that already have a plentiful supply of events. Of the eight tournaments announced by LIV, five are in the USA, one in England and one each in Saudi Arabia and Thailand. Do the LIV golfers really want us to believe that America, Thailand and Britain need to ‘grow the game’, or that Saudi Arabian nationals are now going to take to the links in droves?
Reason two: ‘To reduce my playing schedule.’ To retain their PGA Tour card, a golfer has to play a minimum 15 events; most choose to play between 20-30 a year. No-one has been holding a gun to their head and demanding that they play more than the minimum requirement, they have elected to do that themselves. So, reducing their playing schedule has always been an option.
Reason three: ‘I’m a golfer, not a politician.’ Perhaps the people who believe this should listen to Paul Casey, himself a LIV recruit, who said in 2019, when withdrawing from an event in Saudi Arabia: ‘Anybody who says sport isn’t political, that’s rubbish. Sport is very political, and we’ve seen it through the years. I’m glad I took a stance, more so if it highlighted the issues within the region, especially next door in Yemen.’ In fairness to Paul, he was a UNICEF ambassador and, at their urging, later changed his mind and played in Saudi because UNICEF believed it was better to engage with people than to isolate and shun them but his belief that sport is political is true because life is political. Politics, both literally and metaphorically, governs our lives.
Reason four: ‘To provide for my family.’ Is anyone seriously suggesting that the families of Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Louis Oosthuizen, Bubba Watson, Henrik Stenson, Graeme McDowell or Sergio Garcia are on their uppers and will soon be in need of state aid? These men are already very wealthy as a result of their skill but it seems depressingly true that rich people only want to get richer.
This always begs the question: How many cars can you drive, or houses can you live in, or meals can you eat, at the same time?
Of course, there are a larger number of lesser-known golfers who have signed up – either veterans who never quite made the grade as consistent winners, or promising youngsters who have elected to take guaranteed money rather than rely on fulfilling their potential, which is not a given. Their defection is completely understandable and, be honest, how many of them can you name?
Inevitably, it was David Feherty, himself a LIV signing, who summed it up perfectly when he was asked why he switched and said: ‘Money. People don’t talk about it. I hear: “Well, it’s to grow the game.” Bullshit. They paid me a lot of money.’
And that’s absolutely fine. There’s hardly a person alive, including me, who wouldn’t join a venture such as this if offered enough dosh. I just wish that a few more golfers could emulate Feherty and be honest about it.
I can see and understand why most of the LIV recruits signed up but the name that depresses me more than any other is Cameron Smith. He is neither a youngster showing promise or a veteran whose best days are gone but a supremely talented golfer, aged 28, whose glory years are still to come. Since competitive golf began, players have wanted to test themselves against the best, to gather the glittering prizes and take their place in the rollcall of champions. Smith is good enough, and young enough, to have writ his name large in the history of the game but will instead play meaningless exhibitions against second or third-rate opposition in competitions which, for the foreseeable future at least, will be seen by very few.
I hope he enjoys the money.
Quote of the Week
Excessive golfing dwarfs the intellect. Nor is this to be wondered at when you consider that the more fatuously vacant the mind is, the better for play. It has been observed that absolute idiots play the steadiest
Sir WG Simpson