This is a story about the gods of the oil industry, capitalistic greed, religious fundamentalism, Islamic terrorism, Christian supremacy, Islamophobia and a federal investigation of Donald Trump

The PGA Tour shocked the world last week with its  announcement of a collaboration with LIV Golf.

As much as this is about the business of golf, it’s also about the complexities of systemic injustice and the need to deconstruct hierarchies in the global clash of Christian and Islamic supremacism.

“After two years of disruption and distraction, this is a historic day for the game we all know and love,” PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan declared. “We are pleased to move forward, in step with LIV and PIF’s world-class investing experience, and I applaud PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan for his vision and collaborative and forward-thinking approach that is not just a solution to the rift in our game, but also a commitment to taking it to new heights. This will engender a new era in global golf, for the better.”

Who is PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan? What does Monahan mean by “PIF’s world-class investing experience”? And why is this story running in a Baptist publication?

At root, this is a story about a battle between the gods of the oil industry, capitalistic greed, religious fundamentalism, Islamic terrorism, Christian supremacy, Islamophobia and a federal investigation into former President Donald Trump all coming together in the carefully manicured and cultivated image of a golf course.

A new golf tour funded by Saudi Arabia

The clash began in October 2021 when Golfweek broke the news that a new golf tour funded by Saudi Arabia-based investors would be led by the former top-ranked golfer in the world in the 1980s and 1990s, Greg Norman.

Two days later, ESPN reported  the new league would be called LIV Golf Investments and would be funded by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia. Golf legend Phil Mickelson approved, tweeting, “Awesome day today.”

The vision of the PIF is “to be a global investment powerhouse and the world’s most impactful investor, enabling the creation of new sectors and opportunities that will shape the future global economy, while driving the economic transformation of Saudi Arabia.”

It began in 1971 as part of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Finance. Then it was reborn in 2015 under the Council of Economic and Development Affairs. It claims to be responsible for creating more than 500,000 jobs and to have a value of $700 billion.

The governor of the PIF is Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who also serves as chairman of the Saudi Arabian oil company Saudi Aramco. With a current value of $2.09 trillion, the state-owned Saudi Aramco is not only the largest oil producer in the world, but also the most profitable company in the world. Al-Ruymayyan also sits on the board of directors for Uber and has led the PIF to acquire minority stakes in Boeing, Meta, Citigroup, Disney and Bank of America, plus a majority ownership in the Newcastle United F.C. soccer team.

A monarchy of harsh religious fundamentalism

While Saudi Arabia is technically a monarchy, the king is required to submit to Sharia law. Advising the king on these matters is the Council of Senior Scholars, which is the highest religious body in Saudi Arabia made up of 21 members who are chosen by the king and paid by the government.

Many people remember the violent murder and dismemberment of Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, with experts believing the crown prince must have known about it ahead of time. That prince, Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, also is the chairman of the board for the PIF.

But the violence of the Saudi government extends beyond journalists and political operatives who oppose them. It includes its own citizens.

According to Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia is sentencing its own citizens to prison terms ranging from 10 to 45 years for peaceful dissent on social media.

Human Rights Watch reports Saudi interrogators torture women to the point they lose consciousness.

Saudi Arabia is unapologetic about its mass executions, including one in 2022 where they executed 81 people.

Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said: “This execution spree is all the more chilling in light of Saudi Arabia’s deeply flawed justice system, which metes out death sentences following trials that are grossly and blatantly unfair, including basing verdicts on ‘confessions’ extracted under torture or other ill-treatment.”

Saudi Arabia is known for its strict views of gender distinctions and male-controlled hierarchies that hurt women.

For example, women are allowed to work only in fields the government considers “suited to their nature.” This means just 22% of Saudi women are in the workforce, and their salaries are 44% less than men. Men, on the other hand, make up 98.73% of senior management positions.

When a couple gets married, the husband is considered his wife’s guardian and authority.

More specific laws include prohibitions against alcohol, pornography and bars or nightclubs.

PGA golfers face an offer and a threat

Given the violence of the Saudi government and its control of the PIF, PGA golfers were faced with a difficult decision. With LIV’s massive increase in signing bonuses and prize money, the PGA Tour couldn’t offer financial packages on par with LIV.

Some players were offered between $100 and 200 million to leave the PGA Tour and join LIV Golf. LIV reportedly offered Tiger Woods between $700 and $800 million, which he turned down.

With Norman leading the way, LIV was able to draw such golfers as Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and others.

One of the terms players who joined LIV have been asked about is “sportswashing,” the accusation that Saudi Arabia is distracting the world from its violence and abuse by directing attention to sports.

Before Phil Mickelson signed on, he called the Saudi group “scary motherf***ers.” But after he received his $200 million signing bonus, he said: “I don’t condone human rights violations at all. I’m certainly aware of what has happened with Jamal Khashoggi and I think it’s terrible. I have also seen the good that the game of golf has done throughout history, and I believe LIV Golf is going to do a lot of good for the game as well.”

But if the temptation of money was going to take down the PGA Tour, the PGA was going to go down swinging. On May 10, 2022, the PGA Tour denied permission for its players to participate in LIV golf tournaments. Then on June 9, 2022, PGA commissioner Jay Monahan suspended any player who joined LIV, including Phil Mickelson, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Matt Jones, Sergio Garcia and others.

That August, a myriad of lawsuits began.

Mending fences through financial deals and fear of exposure

Despite the ongoing lawsuits and concerns about the PIF, PGA golfers Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods came out in November and December of 2022 to offer the possibility of the divisions healing if Greg Norman were to be relieved of his duties with LIV Golf.

Regarding Norman, McIlroy said, “You’ve got this thing off the ground but no one’s going to talk unless there’s an adult in the room that can actually try to mend fences.” Woods added, “I think (Greg Norman) has to go, first of all. And then obviously the litigation against us and then our countersuit against them. Those would then have to be at a stay as well, then we can talk, we can all talk freely.”

While Norman continued to lead LIV, Augusta National decided to allow LIV players Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, and Patrick Reed to participate in the 2023 Masters since they had won the tournament in the past.

The following month, LIV Golf agreed to a multi-year TV deal with the CW Network.

In an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA, LIV Golf attorneys attempted to expose problems with the structure and finances of the PGA Tour. However, because the PIF is directly tied to the Saudi Arabian government, they claimed “sovereign immunity” in an attempt to avoid the same transparency themselves. They also claimed opening their books would set a “dangerous precedent” since it would expose such PIF-funded corporations as Walmart and Starbucks.

But despite their fears, Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen denied PIF’s attempt to hide its books. Her order said the court “finds that PIF’s conduct falls within the commercial activity exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act.” She concluded: “It is plain that PIF is not a mere investor in LIV; it is the moving force behind the founding, funding, oversight and operation of LIV. … PIF’s actions are indisputably the type of actions by which a private party engages in trade and traffic or commerce.”

A federal investigation into Trump

This past week, Donald Trump became the first former U.S. president to receive a federal indictment. During the investigation that led to his criminal charges, the Department of Justice subpoenaed The Trump Organization for records related to ties between Donald Trump and LIV Golf.

During the first season for LIV Golf, Trump’s golf courses hosted multiple events. They will continue hosting LIV events for the second year.

Leading up to one of the events, Trump said: “I’ve known these people for a long time in Saudi Arabia, they’ve been friends of mine for a long time. They’ve invested in many American companies, they own big percentages of many, many American companies, and frankly what they’re doing for golf is so great. The PGA was not loved by a lot of the players, as you know, for a long time. Now they’ve got an alternative and nobody would have ever known there would be a gold rush like this.”

Given the grand reception Trump received from Saudi Arabia when he was president, and his language about their leaders, it’s fair to wonder if Trump may even look up to them as role models.

Families of 9/11 victims spoke out against Trump through a statement. Brett Eagleson told CNN, “The former president correctly speculated in 2016 that Saudi Arabia knocked down the towers and now the FBI has released the documents to prove him right. Yet he is choosing money over America. So much for America First. A sad day.”

With Trump now being indicted based in part on subpoenaed documents revealing his connections with the Saudi Arabian leaders of LIV Golf, this may be a story to watch.

A surprise merger

On Tuesday, June 6, the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF surprisingly announced a “newly formed commercial entity to unify golf.”

“The parties have signed an agreement that combines PIF’s golf-related commercial businesses and rights (including LIV Golf) with the commercial businesses and rights of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour into a new, collectively owned, for-profit entity to ensure that all stakeholders benefit from a model that delivers maximum excitement and competition among the game’s best players,” the announcement said.

In addition to ending all litigation, the announcement said the “PIF will make a capital investment into the new entity to facilitate its growth and success.”

Among those shocked by the merger was the 9/11 Families United group, who were particularly surprised at PGA Commissioner Monahan’s sudden change of direction. They issued a statement, saying: “PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan co-opted the 9/11 community last year in the PGA’s unequivocal agreement that the Saudi LIV project was nothing more than sportswashing of Saudi Arabia’s reputation. But now the PGA and Monahan appear to have become just more paid Saudi shills, taking billions of dollars to cleanse the Saudi reputation so that Americans and the world will forget how the kingdom spent their billions of dollars before 9/11 to fund terrorism, spread their vitriolic hatred of Americans, and finance al Qaeda and the murder of our loved ones. Make no mistake — we will never forget.”

When asked how he would respond to their statement, Monahan told the Golf Channel: “I allowed confidentiality to prevail here. And in allowing confidentiality to prevail, I did not communicate to very important constituents, including the families of 9/11, and I regret that. I really do. But as we sit here today, I think it’s important to reiterate that I feel like the move we’ve made and how we move forward, is in the best interest of our sport.”

What the PIF offered Monahan in exchange for his sudden reversal of conviction is unknown. But he reportedly told PGA employees, “We cannot compete with a foreign government with unlimited money.”

The tangled web of systemic evil

1 Timothy 6:11 says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.”

One difficulty with this story is it reveals the piercing with many pains that has been caused by a country with an oil company that is the wealthiest state-run company in the history of the world. Even if questions are asked, is there really anything we can do about it?

Sports commentator Rich Eisen asked: “How much do we love golf? … How much can we just not focus on the business arrangement that was made yesterday that stinks? How much hypocrisy can we swallow as sports fans? Then of course the ultimate question. How much money did Saudi Arabia and the PIF put on the table?”

The love of money in this story is a tangled web that reaches its branches far beyond the game of golf and into the corporations we purchase from every day. Its reach is only going to get stronger and its tower higher.

Christian supremacy vs. Islamic supremacy

One common response many evangelicals will have to this story will be to fear the rise of Islamic supremacy. To be sure, the violence the Saudi Arabian government has wielded against other nations as well as against its own citizens is real and should be named. But another complexity is that in naming the violence of Islamic supremacy, we often fuel the fears that stoke Christian supremacy.

“In naming the violence of Islamic supremacy, we often fuel the fears that stoke Christian supremacy.”

When you examine the theological framework of Christian supremacists, they utilize the same gender hierarchies and spiritual warfare language  Islamic supremacists use. When you consider the political priorities of Christian supremacists, they share the same passion for oil and financial wealth Islamic supremacists use. And when you study the justification for violence and the coverups of abuse in the name of doing good and protecting the institution that Christian supremacists use, they’re the same approaches that Islamic supremacists use.

As violent as the Saudi government has been, they have made some efforts to evolve by giving women more rights than they previously had. But when you consider the rhetoric of Christian supremacists, it’s as if they, like their hero Trump, look up to the Islamic supremacists as role models and desire to move toward a Christian version of Sharia law.

We should foster healthy relationships with our neighbors around the world by coming together across national, cultural and religious divides to learn from and love one another. But when the coming together is funded by the wealthiest state-run corporations who are driven by religious supremacy, we had better hope we can deconstruct our passion for hierarchy before our towers collide.

 

Rick Pidcock is a 2004 graduate of Bob Jones University, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Bible. He’s a freelance writer based in South Carolina and a former Clemons Fellow with BNG. He recently completed a Master of Arts degree in worship from Northern Seminary. He is a stay-at-home father of five children and produces music under the artist name Provoke Wonder. Follow his blog at www.rickpidcock.com.