Golf legend Tom Watson takes intention at PGA Tour commissioner with 9/11 reference
Eight-time main champion Tom Watson has hit out on the PGA Tour after its merger with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf. In a scathing open letter, the 73-year-old urged commissioner Jay Monahan to query the deal and accused the commissioner of ‘hypocrisy’.
The merger between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour got here after months of disputes and a prolonged litigation battle. The two leagues have since put their variations apart and agreed to create a partnership which has divided each followers and gamers.
On the day after American golfer Wyndham Clark turned a serious champion after successful the US Open, Watson penned his ideas. In the letter he claimed his questions despatched to commissioner Jay Monahan have been ‘compounded by the hypocrisy in disregarding the ethical concern.’
Monahan not too long ago stepped away from his duties after is was introduced by the PGA Tour that he’s ‘recuperating from a medical state of affairs’. Watson references the news in his letter wishing the comissioner a ‘full and speedy restoration.’
The remainder of Watson’s letter is a damning evaluation of the merger. The golf veteran hit out at Monahan after his earlier disapproval of LIV and its backers.
“Unfortunately, in the wake of recent news, I also understand the cries of hypocrisy,” Watson wrote. “Because he is a smart man, I know Jay does too. In my opinion, the communication has been mishandled and the process by which the Tour agreed on a proposed partnership with PIF was executed without due process.
“As a gaggle of gamers and stakeholders who signify the face and the manufacturers of the Tour, what are our selections? Clearly, the Tour’s conventional enterprise mannequin was threatened by LIV. The upstart tour created unprecedented obstacles and battles of each ethical and monetary consequence.”
Speaking on LIV Golf’s Saudi-backers, he added: “I nonetheless await Saudi acknowledgement of their position within the assaults of 9/11, which resulted within the lack of the harmless lives of 3000 of my fellow American residents. I assist 9/11 Families United and their efforts to launch supporting exculpatory U.S. Government paperwork.
“That day, forever among the darkest in our nation’s history, is sadly not alone among the human rights violations we have seen employed by Saudi Arabia. I ask the Tour, how is a non-negotiable point for us one day one we negotiate around the next?”
Watson ended his letter by furthering his level. He stated: “My loyalty to golf and this country live in the same place and have held equal and significant weight with me over my lifetime. Please educate me and others in a way that allows loyalty to both and in a way that makes it easy to look 9/11 families in the eye and ourselves in the mirror.”