USGA fails game by allowing LIV golfers to compete at next week's US Open | Opinion

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To the surprise of absolutely no one, the U.S. Golf Association has failed miserably to meet the moment. Given the opportunity Tuesday to take a stand against renegade players who have gone into business with the people who murdered and dismembered Jamal Khashoggi, the USGA caved, completely.

By not kicking Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and the other Blood Money Bros out of next week’s U.S. Open in Boston, the USGA is for all intents and purposes condoning, endorsing and even supporting the brand new business partners of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, who sanctioned the 2018 killing of Khashoggi, according to human rights organizations and intelligence services.

Corks must be popping in London, site of the inaugural LIV Golf event, where Greg Norman and his gang of greedy guys just trampled everything golf supposedly holds dear and got away with it.

Golf leadership, which clearly is an oxymoron, talks all the time about honor and principle and values. Golf is different, they tell us. Golf is better. The players are so virtuous. They call penalties on themselves. Golf is the best of us.

Hahaha.

Saudi blood money, for the good of the game.

As awful as the USGA’s response is, none of it is the least bit surprising. Golf has always been terrible at even trying to fake having a moral compass. Run by rich white men (and recently, the occasional rich white woman), it allowed and even encouraged discrimination against Black people and women for decades. There are still golf courses in America today that will kick a woman off the property if she sets foot on the grounds.

So of course the stewards of the game won’t speak out now. They’d rather just let an important issue languish. Look at the USGA statement that came out Tuesday afternoon:

“We pride ourselves in being the most open championship in the world,” they started out, then segued into a discussion of their criteria for playing in the Open.

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There was no attempt to discuss the morality of golfers leaving to accept what amount to massive Saudi bribes to “sportswash” the crimes of MBS, no mention of the murder of Khashoggi, no mention of how the selfishness of Mickelson and the rest is trying to take down the structure of the game.

No, just well-lawyered sentences saying a whole bunch of nothing about the topic at hand. At one point, the USGA equates the entire Saudi golf league to just “another event.” That says it all. You know those golf tournaments: you have one sponsored by an insurance company, then you have one sponsored by murderers. It’s so hard to tell the difference.

The USGA ended this way: “Our decision regarding our field for the 2022 U.S. Open should not be construed as the USGA supporting an alternative organizing entity, nor supportive of any individual player actions or comments. Rather, it is simply a response to whether or not the USGA views playing in an alternative event, without the consent of their home tour, an offense that should disqualify them for the U.S. Open.”

Oh my goodness, the gobbledygook. This is what the USGA could have said: “We felt we were too close to the 2022 U.S. Open to do anything, but all golfers associated with LIV Golf for every USGA championship that hasn’t begun its selection process will be banned from those events from now on.”

Of course, that would have required a spine, a little courage, a sense of duty to do the right thing culturally. I don’t think golf’s leaders have any of that in them.

By doing nothing, what the USGA has done is threaten to turn its hallowed men’s national championship into a fascinating, controversial free-for-all. The business partners of murderers will soon have their U.S. Open tee times. Let the three-ring circus begin.