CHARLOTTE, N.C. – For the first time in his life, just a few weeks shy of his 79th birthday, Donald Trump is going to the front line. Not in a war of actual consequence — bone spurs, you understand — but in the comparatively minor scuffle to shape the future of men’s professional golf.
Trump arrived today in the Middle East, visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The trip is less about diplomacy than dealmaking, his stated intent being to return with a sheaf of commercial agreements that he can claim credit for. One of the deals on his agenda involves LIV Golf, the Saudi-funded circuit that has torched northwards of $5 billion and numerous reputations while returning little more than piddling broadcast audiences and a sponsorship deal with Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers.
There was a time when it would have been scandalous for a sitting U.S. president to use the office to serve his personal business interests, but that was back when America had Attorneys General who didn’t think an emoluments clause was the disclaimer on a moisturizer. Trump receives fees from LIV to host tournaments at his golf courses. He aspires to be back in business with the PGA Tour and he’s already working with the DP World Tour, which also stands to benefit from any infusion of Saudi cash through a Tour-PIF deal. No matter how much his involvement is presented as an effort to reunify a divided sport, it’s a self-serving exercise in blatant corruption.
As the mandarins in Ponte Vedra understand things, the president is going to Saudi Arabia to tell its autocratic leader, Mohammed bin Salman, that any deal between the Tour and the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund will be on the Tour’s preferred terms, and those terms will not include a long-term future for LIV. Tiger Woods, a director on the Tour’s policy board — and around whom Trump is reduced to a fawning fan boy — was dispatched to the White House late last week to ensure the president would be on message in Riyadh.
To serious people who concern themselves with serious things, it must seem a breathtaking trivialization of American influence to see the presidency inserted into a tedious commercial dispute about whether professional golfers should be paid too much or, alternatively, way too much. There are many geopolitical priorities more worthy of discussing — multiple wars and regional conflagrations, economic crises, the WTF fiasco that is EWR airport — but none is so close to Trump’s heart as golf, which he’s promised he could fix in 15 minutes.
He arranged a White House summit on Feb. 20 that involved Woods, his fellow player-director Adam Scott, commissioner Jay Monahan and PIF chief Yasir Al-Rumayyan. Instead of a breakthrough, it resulted in a breakdown. Al-Rumayyan rejected the Tour’s proposed terms and bristled at the manner in which he felt disrespected. Since then, it’s been complete radio silence, with Al-Rumayyan offering no indication that he’s interested in reaching an accord. Not even his being granted access to the Masters thawed matters.
Rising TV ratings and sponsors re-upping have the Tour swaggering where a year ago it was staggering. The board has wearied of tortuous negotiations in which the PIF has not submitted a single proposal on how to bridge the divide. There’s a growing internal sentiment that it’s time to cut a deal or cut bait, and there’s a symbolic deadline looming to assert that clarity: the second anniversary of the Framework Agreement. June 6 is just 25 days away.
But having involved Trump in the process, the Tour’s fate now rests in the hands of a man who is wholly transactional and loyal only to himself. Will he insist on deal terms that benefit the Tour over the investment fund that gave his son-in-law’s private equity company $2 billion? Will he alienate a strategic and economic ally just as the U.S. lurches toward recession? Will a greater grifting opportunity present itself in the shadows? He might be a Tour guy more than a LIV guy, but he’s fundamentally a Trump guy. Nothing has ever come before his own interests. But it’s not like he has a lengthy track record of screwing over his supposed partners, right Jay?
If Trump actually delivers the message he has promised, the Saudis have a call to make. Consent to terms that would ultimately mean LIV’s demise (no matter how it’s dressed up in public), or balk and face the prospect of continuing to fund a worthless enterprise as both sides proceed on their separate pathways. It’s a big week for golf, and would be so even without a major championship being contested.
The future of professional golf is likely to be impacted more by the conversation between a couple of authoritarians 7,000 miles from Charlotte than by anything that happens at the PGA Championship. But at least we know there’s a predictable order of business at Quail Hollow Club, and that golf will emerge the winner.
Lynch: Donald Trump takes the PGA Tour’s terms to Saudi Arabia. What will he return with? – Golfweek
