Lupica: Saudi merger nothing but a money grab for Jay Monahan, PGA

The bag men from Saudi Arabia bought themselves another seat at the table this week when they bought themselves the PGA Tour, at least until the Department of Justice weighs in on just how far over the anti-trust line everybody involved in this deal just wandered. And by the time the DOJ does weigh in, everything else might just turn out to be noise.

For now, what the Saudis really did here was money-whip everybody the way they always do when they want something badly enough. In the process they once again tried to change the subject on the ongoing human rights violations in their country that are as prevalent in that country, and as dirty, as oil.

Start here with this “for-profit” enterprise they all announced to the world the other day: If Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is the one putting in the most money, it’s his tour now, even as we’re being told that the current PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan just consolidated his power, no matter how his players feel about this deal with the Saudis being carried out in darkness, and that means literally in darkness.

We keep hearing that because Monahan and his cronies control the new board, they control the sport. Not if the Saudis are the ones putting up the most money, they’re not.

And maybe now everyone on both sides of this, the PGA Tour and the LIV Tour, can stop trying to sell this claptrap about growing the game. What they’re really doing, at least on the Tour side of this, is growing bank accounts all over the place. There is no law against what the PGA Tour did, even if they are getting knee burns genuflecting in front of a regime like this.

Saudi Arabia is a country with contemptible policies toward gays and women, one forever tied to the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a murder basically carried out in broad daylight. But they get what they want here, the biggest foothold yet on the great stage of world sports, even bigger than having its Newcastle team qualify for the Champions League in soccer.

What do Monahan and his buddies on the board get? The thing they wanted and needed the most at this point in golf history:

Cash.

You always go back to the wisdom of the great football man George Young on matters like this. It was George who once told me, and famously, “When they say it’s not about the money, it’s always about the money.” Not only do we see, plainly, what the Tour is with this arrangement, they didn’t even have to haggle over price. Such a deal.

I believe Jay Monahan and his sidemen desperately needed the money they’re about to get — a billion dollars or whatever it is — from the Crown Prince’s point man here, Yasir Al-Rumayyan. Point man or consigliere, either way. Since we are talking about one of the world’s richest mobs, think of Al-Rumayyan more as the Crown Prince’s Tom Hagen.

The point-missers in the media are out in full force on this one, saying this is just another example of another American company doing business with Saudi Arabia, the way even the president of the United States does. But those deals were only about business in the end. This is sportswashing with the Crown Prince and his bag men, pure and simple. They used soccer for cover. Now they’re using the PGA Tour for cover. You better believe everybody who’s a part of this merger or acquisition or whatever you want to call it deserved to be called out by families of 9/11 victims, from the tallest buildings we still have standing in this country.

Monahan says now that it was a terrible mistake not telling those families beforehand that this deal was about to go down. Really? Here was the only honest thing Joe could have said to them: “I feel awful about this after all the rotten things I’ve been saying about the LIV tour. But I need the money.” Now he turns around and pats the heads of his own constituency, the players who actually are and tells them not to worry, he’s going to raise their allowance.

We can talk all day long about the business American companies and the American government does with Saudi Arabia. We can talk about the ties the NBA has with China, and how the Olympics keep showing up in China despite that country’s own hideous record on human rights. So China hides behind basketball and the Olympics. Now Saudi Arabia is hiding behind golf. And the Tour is complicit in that. You know what really happened this week? The Crown Prince won a major.

I believe Monahan was terrified of opening his books as part of discovery in the LIV anti-trust suit against the Tour that now goes away. I think he was equally terrified that he might lose that suit. And even though Monahan will never admit it, I think the Tour was having money problems trying to out-spend the Saudis on golf, with bigger purses and smaller fields and all the rest of it. He didn’t just want this deal. He needed it.

By the way? It’s not as if we’re talking about pro football here. It’s not as if we’re talking about the NFL. It’s golf, a sport that still only ever got big ratings in the modern sports world when Tiger Woods was beating the world. The guys in charge of it just come up looking like small-timers here, no matter how big the pot of money is in the middle of the table.

All the LIV guys got paid. Now the PGA Tour gets paid. Jump ball. And if Monahan is a hypocrite for spinning in the air in a way that might have figure-skating moves named after him someday, what is Phil Mickelson, the first guy in line when the Saudis started throwing money around in golf? Mickelson is the one who famously called the Saudis “scary motherf–kers” after he had his hand out. Now he brags that he’s on his way to billionaire status. What a guy.

Mickelson got paid, did he ever. Brooks Koepka got paid. So did Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed and a bunch of has-beens. Now Monahan certainly gets paid. He says that Rory McIlroy, who stood out front and took it all for Monahan for an entire year, is going to get make-good money for that, and so is Tiger. We’ll see about that. For now McIlroy, who is better than all of them, gets rewarded by getting a phone call to give him a heads-up before the deal is announced.

People in sports talk constantly about how Father Time is undefeated. So is money. Blood money in this case. And it will be about growing the game when pigs can fly.

One last thing on golf today, I promise:

Brandel Chamblee of the Golf Channel has been getting trolled on this merger by some of the dim bulbs from the other side.

Guess what?

Chamblee has had the high ground on LIV from the start.

And still has the high ground.

Of course, the Heat can still come back in the Finals, crazier things have happened, LeBron and the Cavs came back from 1-3 down against the Warriors in the Finals of 2016. 

But the sides in this one haven’t looked even from the start of this one, mostly because of Jokic.

If Novak Djokovic wins his 23rd major on Sunday, it will mean that he and Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer will have 65 majors among them.

Borg, Connors, McEnroe combined for 26 if you’re keeping score at home.

Steve Cohen must be thinking at this point that $86 million doesn’t buy you nearly as much with Cy Young starting pitchers as it used to.

You think Kevin Durant has a happy face emoji going or a sad face now that he’s seeing these rumors about the Suns being interested in James Harden?

Pretty soon Mike Keenan is going to throw his hat into the ring with the Rangers.

It’s amazing how many frontrunners have decided that Buck Showalter has forgotten how to manage his baseball team.

But you know something?

The Mets now have 98 games to show that they’re really not the worst team money can buy.

You look at what is happening to them and ask yourself this question:

Who other than Pete Alonso is a better player this year than he was last year?

Here’s another question about the ‘23 Mets:

When does Francisco Lindor start playing like a $300 million dollar baseball player again?

Preferably sooner rather than later.

I’d rather see Ronny Mauricio at Citi Field right now than Mark Vientos.

I’m so old I can remember the days when Daniel Vogelbach was a fun story.

My pal Stanton wants to know if Bill Belichick gets docked GOAT points for the way he let Mac Jones try the whole thing without an offensive coordinator last season.

You know why I’m going to watch Lionel Messi play for Miami?

Because I’d watch Messi play if he were playing for a team on the Moon, is why.

I don’t care whether the latest image of Ja Morant has him holding a toy gun or not.

Somebody needs to tell this meathead that guns in America aren’t funny.

We’re not going to have to know every time Aaron Rodgers gets a latte, right?

Or scores some concert tickets?

Yup, the 76ers did let Jimmy Butler walk and keep Tobias Harris on a $180 million deal.

They really, really did.

I’m just assuming it was destiny that brought Stephen A. Smith and Sean Hannity together.

I can’t believe cynical people actually seem to think 37 counts on a federal indictment are a lot.