A Song of
Freedom
(Editor’s note: The following is excerpted from a speech delivered at the Hermosa Beach September 9 Memorial on September 9, 2019 by Manhattan Beach Fire Captain Tim O’Brien.)
Because of technical rescue training Jeff Sanders, and I had, and through a relationship our former Fire Chief Dennis Groat had with a New York Fire Chief, Jeff and I were sent to New York. We took with us a specialized extrication tool that had been designed by John Wenckus, an aerospace engineer who, in a twist of fate, happened to be on flight 11, which crashed into the North Tower…. Those entering college now don’t have an independent recollection of 9/11. So it is up to the older generations to remember, and explain. Memorials like this create a healing space to do so, and as the plaque in front of this memorial suggests, “Have our voices unite in a song of freedom.”
by Paul Teetor
Just east of the Manhattan Beach Fire and Police compound, at the corner of Valley Drive and 15th Street, there’s a 9/11 memorial with two I-beam sections retrieved from the World Trade Center wreckage. “We shall never forget” is engraved in the memorial’s stone.
Manhattan Beach has never forgotten that awful day nearly 22 years ago. The city government has made sure of that with an annual remembrance ceremony.
But the Professional Golfers Association and its Commissioner, Jay Monahan, have clearly forgotten about it. They’ve also forgotten about the 9/11 families, forgotten about the nearly 3,000 victims, and forgotten that 15 of the 19 hijackers that deliberately crashed into the Twin Towers were Saudi Arabian nationals.
And they have certainly forgotten that Saudi Arabia has continued its brutal, thuggish, repressive regime right up to the present day, making them one of the worst human rights violators in the world.
Monahan and the PGA Tour have forgotten that there is no right to free speech in Saudi Arabia, and no religious freedom. They’ve forgotten that women are second-class citizens in that desert kingdom. Ethnic minorities and LGBTQ+ folks are treated even worse – they’re third-class citizens.
And they’ve forgotten that, according to the CIA, the current Saudi ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, had Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi killed and carved up into little pieces just five years ago because he dared to be critical of the Saudi regime.
Why have Monahan and the PGA chosen to forget all that carnage, all those human rights abuses, all those affronts to the core American values of democracy, equality and free speech?
Money.
It’s certainly not breaking news that money and its first cousin, rampant greed, controls nearly everything about sports, from high school to college to the pros.
There are still plenty of noble traits associated with sports, especially at the high school and college levels. Things like loyalty, sportsmanship and a love of competition for its own sake, for the pure simple joy of winning an athletic contest of skill and athleticism. Throw in things like teamwork, discipline and personal growth, and sports can be an important part of a life well lived.
Indeed, those wonderful aspects of sports are still alive, and still breathing.
But the air is getting fouler by the week.
And this week we witnessed a particularly foul stench coming from, of all places, the PGA and Monahan, the guy who calls the shots for the association.
The news was sudden and shocking: the PGA Tour and LIV Golf ended their war of attrition by joining forces. On Wednesday Monahan stunned the sports world by announcing the two golf leagues, along with the European DP World Tour, are merging into one company after a short period of fierce rivalry, one where LIV Golf defectors were banned from competing on the PGA Tour.
LIV, financed by the seemingly limitless Saudi Public Investment Fund and led by legendary golfer Greg Norman, lured some of the top names in golf last year with reported nine-figure contracts, including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau.
Other huge golf names, however, like Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, stayed loyal to the PGA Tour, despite being offered massive amounts of money.
Norman claimed last year that Woods turned down a payday in the range of $700 million-$800 million to stick with the PGA Tour.
With the merger, the Saudi-backed LIV and the PGA Tour are ending an antitrust battle and have agreed to end all litigation between the two sides.
“After two years of disruption and distraction, this is a historic day for the game we all know and love,” Monahan said in a statement issued on Wednesday. “This transformational partnership recognizes the immeasurable strength of the PGA Tour’s history, legacy and pro-competitive model.”
Monahan conveniently forgot to retract all the critical things he said about LIV and its Saudi backers over the last two years. He said that they were offering PGA members “blood money” to join LIV, and that Saudi Arabia was guilty of innumerable human rights violations, which made it morally impossible for the PGA to have anything to do with them.
All of which was true when he made the charges and remains true today.
Nor did he mention that the new arrangement means that Saudi Arabia, which under the new deal also becomes the premier sponsor of the PGA Tour, will now, in effect, own the tour. Someone named Yasir Al-Rumayyan will take over the commissioner’s job and Monahan will be bumped down to CEO.
In the brave new world of sports betting on everything and anything, the over-under on how long Monahan lasts in his new job is one year. The golden parachute he gets for engineering the Saudi takeover? At least $20 million.
Why has the PGA handed its future over to the Saudis?
Because they have the gold, in this case an endless supply of oil money, and the golden rule never changes: whoever has the gold makes the rules.
The hypocrisy on the part of Monahan and the PGA on announcing the “merger” was breath-taking.
Just one year ago Monahan called on the PGA members who had chosen to align with the LIV Tour to examine their moral compasses.
“It probably is an issue for players who chose to go and take that money…and I think you’d have to be living under a rock to not know that there are significant implications,” he said.
At the same time, he also explained why the PGA wanted nothing to do with LIV golf.
“When someone attempts to buy the sport, I doubt that’s the vision any of us have for the game,” he said.
And yet, just a year later, he now says that the merger is good for the fans, the players and the game of golf itself. And once all the best players are back playing on the same tour, it will be better for the fans who don’t really care about politics and just want to see the top players competing against each other.
And when the families of the 9/11 victims began publicly protesting last year, expressing their outrage against LIV golfers for betraying the United States and its core values, Monahan eagerly piled on.
“As it relates to the families of 9/11,” he said. “I would ask any player who has left the tour to join LIV, have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?”
And for the first time, an obscure term that had been little used or understood by the general public – sport-washing – was being heard far and wide.
What it means, essentially, is that the Saudis – who have also bought up big slices of the pie for pro tennis, auto racing and soccer – are using their vast oil money to buy respectability on the world stage.
Countries and sports groups like the PGA that previously wanted nothing to do with the moral stain that being associated with the Saudis would bring are now casting aside those restraints to get in on the firehose of money that the Saudis are using to launder their dirty deeds.
Rory Mcllroy, the Irish golf star who had been the biggest critic of LIV and its push to take over the golf world with its tainted money, said he first learned of the merger at the same time as everyone else, including the broadcast networks and his fellow competitors.
“We were all caught off guard by this announcement,” he said. “We had no idea this was coming.”
By the time 24 hours had passed, however, Mcllroy said there was nothing he or his fellow players could do about it.
“I’m resigned to this happening,” he said. “But I still hate LIV.”
When it comes to golf, All Ball doesn’t know a birdie from an eagle. But this week’s stunning news made one thing crystal clear about the people who run pro golf: After more than a year spent shaming their defecting players for taking the LIV money, the PGA Tour is…taking the LIV money.
Now that is something golf fans should never forget.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. Follow: @paulteetor. ER
