“Wealth created by a lying tongue is a vanishing mist and a deadly trap.” (Proverbs 21:6)

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, June was my favorite month. Mostly thanks to golf.

The golf season in my old Kentucky home was kicking into gear. Summer had arrived, and with it the state amateur which I loved. All the local golf clubs had weekend invitational tournaments with low level friendly “calcuttas” that kept the natives restless. As we rolled into June, we knew that we had at least four more good months of golf and more.

But oh how things have changed. In my current sweet home Alabama, June means the hot and humid summer has started and while the grass is growing just fine, the heat and humidity means the golf season is not beginning – it is over!

But then, June 2023 has been especially brutal. And I don’t mean the weather. Someone decided that June is LGBTQ+ Pride month. I am still not sure who. But when I heard Jim Nance announcing at the PGA Tour’s Memorial Tournament on June 4th that CBS was proud to promote the LGBTQ+ agenda, I knew that June was no longer my favorite month.

And then…just two days later, it got worse.

June 6th brought the stunning news of a proposed merger of the PGA Tour and the LIV Golf Tour. The same PGA Tour which berated the Saudi-backed circus as money-grabbing evildoers had joined hands and hearts in a love-fest. The lawsuits have been settled and supposedly a framework is in place for a merger. PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan and the PIF’s governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan (wearing his Western style business suit to look like a Walmart executive) told us in a joint press conference that they really like and respect each other.

But as far as I can tell, there can only be one reason for the merger– MONEY and his little brother GREED.

As it turns out, the Saudis have more money than the PGA Tour but what they really want is something bigger than money. The Saudis want respect. And the PGA Tour will gladly give it to them… IF THEY WILL FUND THE P.G.A. TOUR.

Apparently, the PGA Tour figured out that the ridiculous sums they have been coerced into paying the stars of professional golf (leveraged as predicted by Phil Mickelson and the Saudi billions poured into LIV) has no sustainable economic plan of support.

The combination of attorneys’ fees and over-market payments to players was too much to sustain over the long haul. And so, the PGA Tour was forced to cave- to take the money, join the Saudi PIF, and stop speaking out against the atrocities of the Saudi government.

In the real world of business, income needs to exceed expenses, or at worst, match up. But in the surreal world of Saudi sports-washing, the expenses and income need not match.

As it turns out, the conscience of the Tour is no better than the Saudis, who rejoiced in the murder of 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001. CLICK HERE to see what I wrote about LIV golf in September 2022.

We should have seen it coming.

MONEY is always the know-all and end-all of American and Western European culture. The world as we know it is gone. Even college basketball and football players are now staying in school not to get an education but because they can make more money through NIL than in the NFL or NBA. We now applaud payments to players by our beloved universities that once put them on probation. Alumni beg their alma mater to fire coaches and pay them millions in buyouts because they lost three games last year. The athletic scene in America has become insane with MONEY.

In some ways, golf is late to this money-grabbing party. All sports have been affected. And the players make their logical arguments that they are worth it, since executives in all these sports are also getting filthy rich just shuffling papers and players around. Look at the raw numbers of annual income for the top seven athletes…

Ronaldo (soccer) $136 Million…………. Messi (scocer) $130 million………………….Mbappe’ (soccer) $120 Million………… LeBron James (Basketball) $119 Million ……..Canelo Alvarez (Boxing) $110 Million…………… Dustin Johnson $107 Million……………Phil Mickelson $106 Million. Two of the top seven are from LIV Golf even though corporate sponsors have dumped Johnson and Mickelson. Their money is ALL tainted Saudi-PIF-LIV guaranteed money.

Gary Player with Golf Saudi advertisement

Even icons like Gary Player, seen here in 2020 at the Masters wearing a Golf Saudi advertisement on his shirt, unapologetically takes Saudi money.

But looking back, nothing about the Golf world’s fascination with money should be a huge surprise. We should have seen this coming.

Look at the PGA Tour website. Oddsmakers in Vegas give you the ODDS for every golfer every week. Click a button (I did it this week) and you can pull up an App that allows you to gamble on every player in the field. Ripe for corruption? Of course, but who’s paying attention. “Hey, Mr. PGA Tour Journeyman, just don’t shoot under 70 today. Okay? And when you get to 16, don’t forget to hit it into the water,” says the friendly Vegas hit-man. You think I’m kidding?

Right next to the LEADERBOARD and TEE TIMES, you will find ODDS. Vegas had already compromised the PGA Tour with their MONEY, but we were not paying attention.

For the PGA Tour, jumping into bed with the Vegas mob was just an opening act for sleeping with the Saudi’s and the PIF.

Perhaps it was no coincidence that Casino was playing on cable TV on Sunday, June 18 just before the US Open came on in Prime Time at the Los Angeles Country Club. Do you remember the Mob Movie about how the gambling gangsters control Vegas and Money was all that matters. The movie proves how these mobster money matters always have an unhappy and violent end. The movie ends with everyone going to prison or getting killed.

This real-life golf world movie is just getting started and will also have an unhappy ending. This movie stars Governor Yassir Al Rumayyan and the PIF, Jay Moynahan and the PGA Tour, Greg Norman and the horde of golfers at LIV. I wake up every morning feeling sad for them all. “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36).

Sadly, in the end, these names will be forgotten. Not just here, but heaven as well, if their names are not in the Book of Life (Rev. 20:15). Perhaps you remember the character “Nameless” from Player’s Progress. He is found on the 13th hole of Hokmah Golf Club, named MONEY. I stole his ‘name’ from Lettie Cowman’s poem in Streams in the Desert, describing the famous rich young ruler of Mark 10:17-22.

We are not told his name—this “rich young ruler”— Who sought the Lord that day. We only know that he had great possessions, And that he went away. He went away; he kept his earthly treasure, But oh, at what a cost! Afraid to take the cross and lose his riches— And God and Heaven were lost. So, for the tinsel bonds that held and drew him, What honor he let slip—Comrade of John and Paul and friend of Jesus— What glorious fellowship! For they who left their all to follow Jesus, Have found a deathless fame, On his immortal scroll of saints and martyrs God wrote each shining name. We should have read his there—the rich young ruler— If he had stayed that day; Nameless—though Jesus loved him—ever nameless, Because—he went away. NAMELESS.

This is probably enough said, but I cannot leave this subject without also addressing the role of lawyers in all this nonsense. This LIV/PGA settlement proves that, at the end of the day, lawyers are still in charge of things they should never control. I spent most of my adult life in litigation and courtrooms and this just proves again that every dispute can be settled. No matter how much personal animus and name-calling happens in any case, resolution is always possible. IF THE MONEY IS RIGHT.

This smells like one of those settlements where lawyers did what they are trained to do. Their goal is to run up bills for a year or so (in this case Millions of $$), and then, just before they might ‘lose’ the case, force a settlement. Lawyers are not eager to actually go to court. The speeches go something like this.

“If we go to court, this is going to cost way more than you can possibly afford, even if you win. When you calculate the Attorneys’ fees and costs of litigation, even if you win, you lose.”

And even if your position is strong, the lawyers always exaggerate the chances of losing. This is a scary moment when the same lawyers who told you that you’ve got a ‘great case’ now tell you that you “might lose”. This only happens after those same lawyers have made enough money on the case to move along since another sucker corporation has hired them for the next battle.

Clients lose their nerve because the idea of losing is a lot scarier than any exhilaration over the idea of winning. Counter emotions get involved and both sides take the safe way out- a settlement that neither side really likes. They all claim to be satisfied with the outcome. But truthfully, no one is happy but the lawyers.

So, this PGA/LIV/PIF settlement and merger smells like Lawyers and Money. A bad combination.

But enough about the Saudis and the Lawyers and the Hypocrites who lead the world of golf.

What about the PGA Tour players themselves? They are now in a real bind- a true dilemma.

They are fulfilling their dream. They worked hard and made it to the top- the PGA Tour. Not many make it. The chances of making it are miniscule. Miraculous really. And now, having made it, good guys like Scottie Scheffler (my personal favorite player), and Rory, and Rahm and Rickie- plus hundreds more in the USA and Europe will have a decision to make. Do we go along with this new regime? Do we say- this is just the way it is- we will keep playing for the money no matter where it comes from?

IF the Saudi’s PIF funds actually control professional golf- will any of the players “just say NO”!?!?

The high ground would be very shaky. And possibly lonely.

Will anyone who stood against LIV for moral and high-ground reasons, now say ‘NO, I QUIT’? Personally, I hope so, but we will see.

There is a historical precedent for leaving the money behind. It’s not exactly the same, but plenty of guys over the years have said NO to more money and fame. They have gone home to take care of families, or just decided the high life of golf and travel is not worth the toll it takes. Our friend Bill Rogers quit the tour at age 37 to go home. He was surely inspired partly by his friend Bruce Lietzke who seldom played because he thought Little League baseball was more important than the money on the tour. Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam both retired early because the clock was ticking on family and wonderful life away from the hubbub and money of Tour life.

Even my old friend from Kentucky, Jodie Mudd, said NO once upon a time, No one knows for sure why- maybe not even Jodie- but he won four times on tour, including the Tour Championship, and flat out quit in 1996 when he was in his prime, age 36. He had finished fourth at the Masters and British Open. He decided that he had had enough. Enough was enough and he went home. So, sure enough, it is possible to say NO.

But forget the players. It is truly not my business to tell them what to do.

What about me? What should I do?

Well, at least for this one little guy in Alabama, the professional TV side of golf may be gone. I have been far too addicted to watching golf on Sunday afternoons anyway. For me, I will play more golf and watch less golf. I am sure that the British Open, Ryder Cups, and Masters will still get my full attention for a few days…….. but maybe not.

I am ready to at least try to say NO to the insanity of modern-day professional golf.

I am willing to say NO- I will not join CBS in celebrating the LGBTQ+ agenda.

I am willing to say NO to the PIF despots and the PGA hypocrites and the LIV money-grabbers.

Golf was never a game to be watched on TV anyway. It has always been a game to play. Golf really does not need the high-profile stars to survive. Other high profile professional sports are quite different. Almost no one knows what is feels like to call an audible as an NFL QB. High school wind sprints in August ended mine and most football careers.

99.999% of NBA fans are slow flat-footed guys who couldn’t dunk a ball if we were jumping off a chair. High school hoops was the end of everyone’s career.

The baseball glory days ended for most kids in Little League. We move from baseball to slow pitch softball in a church league.

Even the world’s craziest sport, soccer, ends at about age ten for most kids in the USA.

But golf. We still play. We join clubs. We socialize with other similarly situated players, who believe they are still competitive because of a handicap system and ‘flights’. Golfers can win the 5th flight at a Member-Guest with inflated handicaps and go home and tell their wife that they WON. She thinks he must be really quite a good player, even though he is 64 years old and shot 92 with a 22 handicap.

So, for me, I will play! I will sign up for the Member-Guest and any other opportunity to play this great game of golf.

So I am just one man with no influence. But here goes. I say NO.

“Trust in your money and down you go.” (Proverbs 11:28)