The only conventional business principle evident in LIV Golf isn’t one of those antiquated notions like return on investment, quality of product or accountability of leadership. It’s the ‘whale’ strategy, the art of securing one high-profile client, at whatever cost, to lend a patina of marketing credibility to an enterprise and distract from the reality that every other client is a sardine by comparison.
Dustin Johnson’s willingness to act as the whale for the Saudi sportswashing effort is unsurprising. As it became apparent that the field being assembled for the inaugural LIV Golf tournament would boast all the star power of an episode of Hollywood Squares, it was no less obvious that an enormous wire transfer would be made to save Saudi blushes. Johnson merely waited until his value was maximized. He is LIV’s great blue whale, but they might yet fill the unassigned spot in next week’s event with at least a pygmy whale. A Brinks truck may already be backing up to Rickie Fowler’s front door in Florida.
It’s not shocking that aging golfers chose easy cash that their clubs can no longer earn, but nor is it wholly excusable. LIV Golf is a reminder that for many people in this sport, the only metric that matters is personal enrichment. ’Twas always thus. There was an international sporting boycott of South Africa during the apartheid era but dozens of top golfers ignored it when a million-dollar bounty was dangled at Sun City. Commerce over conscience. Easy to see why the Crown Prince felt golf could be fertile ground for sportswashing his government’s atrocious record on human rights.
