The recent merger of the PGA Tour and Saudi-backed LIV Golf ended a long battle between the two, typically framed as a struggle between pure, upright American values and brute economic, political and even murderous force. Many associated LIV backers with 9/11 and the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The overwhelming financial might of the billionaires backing LIV ultimately resulted in an offer the PGA leadership apparently couldn’t refuse. But while many are sickened by the effort to “sportswash” Saudi bank accounts, this foreign incursion is hardly the beginning of the sport’s outrages.
Golf courses have historically been places of exclusion. Segregated golf courses flourished in the South through the 1950s, and some private clubs continued to exclude women, people of color and religious minorities until much more recently.
