LIV Golf’s agenda won’t worry fans

The rows about the Saudi-backed LIV Golf series have interesting echoes of the various “rebel” sporting tours at the height of apartheid … but this time around, perhaps, the moral debates are more nuanced.

In the 1970s and 1980s, it was the interventions of civil society – both here and around the world – that finally brought the National Party to the realisation that apartheid was unsustainable.

Those interventions included sports boycotts, as well as global sanctions in various areas, including cultural and, probably most importantly, financial. It is also worth noting that the system of apartheid was declared a crime against humanity.

While Saudi Arabia has a bad human rights record – it was, for example, accused of murdering dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2018 – it is far from being the pariah Pretoria once was.

ALSO READ: US PGA Tour bans LIV Golf players from its tournaments

The United States is also far more open in its backing of the Saudis than it was in showing its covert support for Pretoria as its Cold War ally.

LIV Golf is, clearly, the way the Saudis are trying to launder their international image. Sport is a great way to do that.

Already the kingdom and various businesses in it, have poured billions of rands into Formula One and buying various top football teams. The 17 golfers who are joining LIV Golf have been banished by US PGA Tour.

They have quite correctly made the point that they are professionals who are earning their living through the game. They are not politicians, so why should they be expected to do what government and global diplomacy cannot? Golfers cannot bring about regime change or even reform.

In a broader sense, LIV Golf raises the question: Why are we being forced to make a stand, or have an opinion on, events far away from us? Most fans will tell you one thing: We just want to watch great golf.