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The PGA Tour rightly suspended Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and the LIV golfers

Theo

In the latest skirmish in the Gulf Civil War, someone has finally stood up to the bad guys. The PGA Tour kicked them all out Thursday morning, Phil, DJ and the rest, all 17 Blood Money Bros who only needed to escape the shackles of their multimillion-dollar lifestyles in America to do business with a Saudi killer.

The PGA Tour did the right thing and, frankly, had to do it. Not suspending the fleeing golfers would send a message to all other PGA Tour players that they too can violate the terms of their agreement with the Tour whenever they feel like it and play wherever they want.

If the PGA Tour did not suspend the Saudi Seventeen and all of their future LIV buddies, there might soon be no PGA Tour at all.

Kicked out: PGA TOUR suspends 17 golfers associated with LIV

LIVE GOLF: What you should know about the controversial tour

“These players made their choices for financial reasons,” PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan wrote in a memo to tour members. “But they cannot demand the same benefits, compensation, opportunities and platforms of PGA Tour membership that you do. This expectation is disrespectful to you, our fans and our partners.”

There was no information on how long the suspensions might last, so “indefinitely” is the right description for now. But it’s logical to assume that by not setting a time limit, the PGA Tour is implying that this could indeed be a long time, at least for as long as LIV Golf exists, however long that may be.

Dustin Johnson (left) and Phil Mickelson greet each other on the first tee during the first round of the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational at Centurion Club in St. Albans, England, on June 9, 2022.Dustin Johnson (left) and Phil Mickelson greet each other on the first tee during the first round of the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational at Centurion Club in St. Albans, England, on June 9, 2022.

Dustin Johnson (left) and Phil Mickelson greet each other on the first tee during the first round of the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational at Centurion Club in St. Albans, England, on June 9, 2022.

Currently, the Saudi Golf League has some big names like Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, reportedly some young golf stars like Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed and Rickie Fowler, and a whole bunch of guys you probably thought had already quit but as it turns out, they’re still playing. It also somehow hasn’t made its way onto any of the 872 TV networks, but is being shown on YouTube, so we’ll see how that works out.

After the PGA Tour announced the suspensions, LIV Golf countered with its own statement.

“This is certainly not the last word on this topic,” it said. “The era of free agency begins and we are proud to have a full field of players joining us in London and beyond.”

This paragraph was conspicuously missing from the LIV statement:

“Our tour’s mission is to pay tens of millions of dollars in bribes to well-known male golfers to burnish the image of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the sport. According to human rights groups and intelligence agencies, he approved the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. MBS funds LIV Golf. Anyone who has joined the tour is his new business partner.”

No, they left that part out and focused on the virtuous fight for fairness for the rich people in sports, toiling and sweating behind the gates of the world’s most exclusive country clubs. Phil and the others must think they are some sort of modern-day Curt Floods. In reality, they are just greedy multimillionaires who only look out for themselves.

Nice try, LIV Golf. This is not a free agency. This is my agency.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LIV Golf: PGA Tour forced to suspend Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson

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