Brooks Koepka And The Passion Of The Mob

I should've known Brooks Koepka was going to flip to the LIV Tour/Saudi Golf League.  In the run-up to last week's U. S. Open, he snapped back at a reporter's question about the LIV/SGL by saying he's tired of such questions, which cast a "black cloud" over the major.  There were other golfers (I think that included Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm) who made clear and unambiguous declarations of loyalty to the PGA Tour.  Koepka did not do that.  Looking back at it, that "black cloud" statement was him not choosing a side ... which should have made me think that he had chosen a side, and it was the bad one.  Oh, and he took a shot at The Media, too -- that's always a sign that a guy knows he's made a decision that won't look good in public.

Well, I heard on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio Monday -- some guy in the morning, not "Gravy And The Sleaze," puke -- that Koepka was going to defect.  Some eagle eye noticed that his Twitter bio took down any and all mentions of "PGA Tour" Monday night and yesterday/Tuesday it was announced that he was going to go LIV, so to speak.  Koepka had been seen as one of the stalwarts fighting back against the upstart tour, but as Golfweek writer and cutthroat wordsmith Eamon Lynch details with such precision, he complained until the Saudis met his price.

I don't know why, but Koepka flipping hits me in a way none of the other defections like Lefty or DJ did.  This was already a wild story in the world of sports; for some reason, this particular flip makes this PGA/LIV showdown not just an existential fight for the soul of professional men's golf, but it may be the sports story of 2022.  And all such stories become the sports story of the year because they touch on issues that transcend sport -- in this case, politics, morality, and what one could and should do for money.

I thought Koepka was a stand-up dude.  I took his side over Bryson DeChambeau in their pissing match because he seemed to not be a dick.  Hell, he just got married and hired Ludacris for the wedding reception.  How cool is that?  But then after reports he's going to flip, I hear stories of him openly hating golf, and insisting he only cares about winning majors.  Oh, and he wants fuckin' money, of course.  Well, with this deal and the signing bonus I presume he got from the Saudis, he's got a lot of fuckin' money and he can play golf a lot less.

As for the majors?  Well, that might be the final decision point as to whether the PGA Tour continues to thrive or, frankly, dies out.  It appears as though everyone can play in the (British) Open next month, but next year the organizations running the (British) Open, the U. S. Open, the PGA Championship and the Masters will decide whether or not all traitors defectors can accrue Official World Golf Ranking points on the LIV Tour and qualify for the majors normally, or not.  For the sake of the PGA Tour and, in my estimation, the free world, they have to say no.  Because if they say yes, there is no reason, absolutely none, for the PGA Tour to even stick around -- not if there's a competing tour that provides a safety net (signing bonuses, no cuts, prize money to the guy who finishes last) instead of the PGA Tour's enduring meritocracy.

Right now, the PGA Tour and golfers are at a turning point.  There is a panic going on in the sport.  And although Koepka is only the eighth golfer in the world top 50 to flip to the LIV/SGL, observers predict more stunning defections by the time the list is announced for the next tour stop, next week in Portland, Ore.  Momentum heavily favors the Saudi upstarts, and I'm not sure that the PGA Tour's "Hey, we will give you the same things the Saudis give you!" concessions they announced yesterday/Tuesday will stem the tide, especially if the bodies that oversee the majors don't say no to the LIV.

Problem is, people get more stupid in a crowd.  Some libertarian "visionary" decides he'll buy his way into power (see Gates, Zuckerberg, Musk and Greg Norman), he bribes a few high-profile people to join him, and then more and more people rush toward the money because they believe that 1) they're going to be a part of something bigger and better than the tour they were in before and 2) the spigot will stop if they jump in too late.  When people don't think and instead are ruled by emotion -- either fear of missing out or arrogance of being part of a special group they know others are not a part of -- they do stupid, stupid things.  And the bigger the group, and/or the more scared they get, the stupider they get.

So how will the golfers who have defected and will defect manifest this zombie groupthink?  This might be a stretch, but I don't think so, so bear with me.  Let's say the majors allow LIV players to play on that tour and compete in the majors by qualifying like they always have.  That convinces the rest of the big stars to flip to the LIV because the Saudis are shoveling tens of millions at them to play as sparingly as they would like.  The PGA Tour as we know it ceases to exist.  And so PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan has to meet with Norman and the Saudis controlling the SGL to either agree to terms of merging what is left of the PGA Tour to the LIV ... or to tell Norman and the Saudis to kiss his ass, he'd rather die than give anything to them.

At that point -- and I can see the destruction of the PGA Tour moreso than ever -- I can see what would be the best-case scenario: Norman and the LIV being rude to Monahan and the PGA Tour on Twitter with Trump-esque insults.  The worst-case scenario?  Norman brings some Saudi goons to beat the living shit out of Monahan for not kissing Norman's ring.  (And by the way, how did Greg Norman become such a libertarian asshole?)  Oh, and someone somehow videotapes the beating.  And the footage gets out.

Either way, the top-end golfers will be asked questions about how they feel about those controlling their billion-dollar golf tournament acting like mobsters.  Many of them (at least I think) will be shocked ... but they can't go anywhere, because they have nowhere else to go.  So, many of them will be silent.  And some will be stupid enough to defend Norman and the Saudis' thuggish actions, or at least criticize those who criticize them, something I like to call "third degree defending," an insipid and cowardly method of arguing where you try to defend the monsters with which you've thrown in your lot without looking like you are defending the monsters with which you've thrown in your lot.  But you have.

I admit it looks far-fetched, but I don't think it is, at least not anymore.  The passion of the mob, as evidenced by Koepka's corrupted about-face, can call into question the existence of a tour that has been around since 1968.  And that same passion can make you overlook many things -- like saying you won't whore yourself for a tour that you suddenly decided to whore for because someone met your price for being a whore.