I watched all of last week's inaugural Saudi International, won by Dustin Johnson and starring China's Haotong Li's four eagle Saturday.
I thought a lot about the European Tour's expansion into the Middle East, 30 years in Dubai, and more recently into Turkey, Abu Dhabi, Oman and Qatar. I thought about each of their reasons why, and I thought about a guy we all know well in this part of the world, Toronto's Keith Pelley, at one time was my boss at Rogers, now the CEO of the European Tour and who's foresight thus far in his career is admirable.
I thought about a golfer having qualms about playing in Saudi, yet quite happy to play in China with it's human rights abuses. What about countries they play in that are dictated or who house evil organizations. How long before atrocities are forgiven, or forgotten. I thought about players who flocked to play during apartheid years ago in South Africa.
One thing I do know is that none of the nationals live in those Middle East countries are flocking to play on the mostly magnificent courses that are being built, mainly with direct or indirect funding from the ruling families. They are for tourists or Europeans working there on visa's. So why build them? The reasons are as varied as their beliefs. For example, Dubai wants to replace diminishing oil reserves with tourism, Qatar wants much the same and has been awarded the 2022 World Cup which is a huge financial undertaking which has provided thousands of jobs.
In the case of Saudi Arabia it appears obvious despite Keith's stance that the event is part of Saudi's international plan moving forward, at this time in their history which is acute with human rights transgressions including the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi who was brutally chopped up and discarded in a vat of acid, that the event was staged to put the regime of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in a good light around the world.
Justin Rose, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson among others received appearance fees that would set most of us up for retirement and as I said last week, they were only going to avoid the tough questions and applaud the organizers, and to be good members in standing of the European Tour, and they did to varying degrees.
Pro golfers have a pretty good life and are awarded accordingly, as any small group of extraordinarily talented professionals should be. They, especially the European Tour play in 50 different countries this year, many with questionable pasts so this is not a clear cut decision.
This time around considering their unabated, appalling record on human rights including the current war in Yemen, I feel I witnessed an expensive PR event on behalf of the ruling regime and only time will change my mind on that.
Bryan Angus
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