As reported by Fox News, LIV golfer and former PGA stalwart Martin Kaymer had this to say, "I'm really looking forward to the reaction of all the people who said, 'We don't want to play for blood money...We don't want to sell our soul.'" Kaymer also suggested that the PGA golfers who refused to sully their checking accounts with Saudi money and lambasted those who did, could now play on the Japanese Tour.
I've always had some questions regarding the PGA's initial PR stance vis-a-vis LIV, especially as it came to defining and labeling "sportswashing." Sportswashing seemed, to me, to be a handy buzzword to go to war with the Saudis via a short-term PR blitz. It's a word that begged one not to look too closely at any national or corporate history. and to focus on the immediate now and the immediate target. I don't even know what to do with the Nike sweatshop angle and the entire subject of sportswashing. The biggest names in sport have rarely had squeaky clean resumes by today's Western standards.
High Profile Events Versus All Events
Accusing Saudi Arabia of sportswashing is all well and good, if your hands are Snow White clean. Getting caught murdering a journalist is horrific, but realistically, if the American CIA has been guilty of a single murder in the last five years, the U.S. is conceivably on the same moral footing as Saudi Arabia. And the U.S. was recently responsible for a drone strike on a misidentified target that resulted in the deaths of children. If you were going to refuse Saudi Arabia blood money for sportswashing, then you may as well refuse U.S. blood money for sportswashing.
Statutes of Limitations
Does "sportswashing" have a statute of limitations, an expiration date? Should it?
Who has the authority to assign statutes of limitations when it comes to "sportswashing?" Who sets the limits of what history counts and what doesn't when it comes to crimes? A long historical lens may view the U.S. harshly for the 200,000 Iraqi civilians who died because we invaded and for misguided drones killing children. Future generations and cultures may have very different views regarding statutes of limitations and sportswashing. Should the statute of limitations be a year, a decade, a century? How does one make that determination? Pragmatism?
We spend a lot of energy judging the Saudis in the now, which is understandable, but not so much judging ourselves in the recent past. Perhaps the U.S. should be disqualified from all international sports due to its historical moral missteps. Perhaps most nations should be similarly disqualified.
Conclusion
As the LVA-PGA monopoly takes over the world of professional golf, all I can say is that I'm really looking forward to seeing Rory McIlroy on the Japanese Tour. I'm not sure how writer and PGA cheerleader Eamon Lynch's Japanese is progressing, but I'm sure he'll also do swell.
Bob Dietz
June 11, 2023
