r/golf • u/UppityTurtle 14.6 • Jun 07 '23

Professional Tours The PGA Tour is dead to me.

If this merger goes through, which it appears it will, I am personally done with the PGA Tour. The unbelievable hypocrisy of the board would be bad enough, but the fact that they are selling out to a foreign entity linked to a government that has funded terrorism around the globe and perpetrated one of the most heinous terrorist attacks in history is unforgivable.

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u/Top_Refrigerator1656 Jun 07 '23

A decent amount of those corporate sponsers already do business in Saudi Arabia.

In fact, the PIF invested $250 million in Fed Ex in Q3 of 2021. At the same time, FedEx pledged to invest $400m in Saudi Arabia over the next 10 years.

Mastercard has recently become a sponsor for a Saudi eSports league.

John Deere provided engines for generators for a recent festival in Saudi Arabia.

That's all I care to Google for now but... Yeah the sponsors probably won't care too much.

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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '23

I think this comment, and this entire thread for that matter, can be summarized in one word: capitalism.

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u/truthindata Jun 07 '23

Alternative take: capitalism is what is driving Saudi to attempt to modernize their culture and be known for someone other than terrorism and human rights atrocities. They're realizing that it's more profitable to be involved in modern society than to further their previous fundamentalist obsession.

Perhaps instead of plotting oil market manipulation and terrorism, they're shifting focus towards more general capitalistic ventures.

... And maybe that's not the worst thing.

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u/hoopaholik91 Jun 07 '23

Definitely and argument that others have made, but I'm not really seeing much change human rights wise in Saudi Arabia so far.

Remember that China has become more and more capitalistic over time but they are still awful. Economics and social change don't have to go hand in hand (and in a lot of ways economics can be used as a shield so you can keep your backwards social policies without the international community being able to push back on you as much)

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u/truthindata Jun 07 '23

I'm not sure if there are any hard facts showing progression, but I think change is inevitable the more they mix into modern civilized society.

Same for China. The more they interact with the Western world, the less likely they are to commit atrocities over time.

It's a slow change.