Golf, politics and money: a PGA without Phil
TULSA, Okla. — How the 104th PGA Championship got here is a tale of golf, politics and money. And why Phil Mickelson, who a year ago became the oldest man to win the tournament — and thus the oldest to win a major — isn’t here. Yes, a tale of golf, politics and money.
This PGA was going to be played in New Jersey, considerably east of Oklahoma. On a course owned by a man named Donald Trump, who at the time was president of the United States of America.
But then came the election, and Trump’s refusal to adhere to the law, which he had pledged to uphold. And when Trump not only did nothing to quell the Capitol — whatever, uprising, riot, insurrection — but actually encouraged it, the good people of the PGA made the move to Southern Hills.
Whether Mickelson is making any moves — he hasn’t played competitively since March — remains a mystery. The PGA wanted him here. After all, how many times do you have a 51-year-old defending champion? (Answer: never.) But Phil didn’t come out of his hiding place, if that be the proper term.
We’ll know more about Mickelson when a book by Alan Shipnuck comes out in a matter of days. Already we found out from Shipnuck’s teasing emails that Mickelson lost so much money gambling, in excess of $40 million, he was forced to join forces with rich Saudi oil sheiks, whom he refers to as murderers and mother-bleepers, to bail him out.
Shipnuck has brought in Michael Bamberger, a former colleague at Sports Illustrated, as part of a writing project called “Fire Pit Collective,” and Bamberger did much of the research on Trump’s course in Bedminster, N.J.
Jack Nicklaus, who built courses for Trump and many others, and not incidentally won 18 majors, called the decision to take the PGA away from Trump ”cancel culture,” yet the PGA was thinking of it not so much of a cancellation as adaptive. It wanted a sporting event, not chaos.
In the periphery is Greg Norman, who, because all of golf is one unhappy family, joined the Saudis (and their finances) to support his own interests against the PGA Tour. Norman was no minimal figure in Mickelson’s dealings, Phil wedging his own struggle against the Tour.
When he appeared for a media interview on Monday, Tiger Woods, not surprisingly, was asked about Mickelson’s situation.
“It's always disappointing when the defending champion is not here,” said Woods. “Phil has said some things that I think a lot of us who are committed to the Tour, and committed to the legacy of the Tour, have pushed back against, and he's taken some personal time, and we all understand that.
“But I think that some of his views on how the tour could be run, should be run, has been a lot of disagreement there. But as we all know, as a professional, we miss him being out here.”
And then we swing back to money, because the word professional is in the label; the better the entry list, the better the TV ratings and eventually the better the payoffs.
“I mean, he's a big draw for the game of golf,” said Woods. ”He's just taking his time, and we all wish him the best when he comes back. Obviously we're going to have a difference of opinions, how he sees the Tour, and we'll go from there.”
It’s hard to say where golf is going, but we know where it went, from a course owned by a former U.S. president to one in Oklahoma, hoping to escape as much controversy as possible.
Fore!