During the final round of the RBC Canadian Open on Sunday, PGA Tour commissioner, Jay Monahan, spoke to media defending the organisation’s decision to suspend all athletes who participated in the LIV Golf tournament.
An ongoing situation for the past few months, the LIV Golf tournament, backed by Saudi Arabian government, who have been accused of using the competition to ‘sportswash’ alleged human rights breaches, began last week in London with a number of top PGA Tour athletes opting in.
Due to this, 17 athletes, who all opted in for the opening event of the LIV tournament, were all suspended from the PGA Tour, including big names like Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, and Sergio Garcia, with nine of the athletes also going as far to resign their PGA Tour membership.
Discussing the decision to suspend every athlete who participated, Monahan said: “It’s been an unfortunate week that was created by some unfortunate decisions.”
“But it’s my job to protect, defend and celebrate our loyal PGA Tour members, our partners and our fans, and that’s exactly what I did.
“I don’t think it was a surprise to anybody given how clear I had been about how we were going to handle the situation…
“We made a decision last week to suspend those players and they are no longer eligible for tournament play.
“And that, at this point, is all we’re prepared to talk to.
“We’ll see how things continue to develop as we go down the road here,” he said.
Following the opening round of the LIV Golf tournament, tournament CEO and commissioner, Greg Norman, told SI.com: “We’re not going anywhere.”
“We believe what we are doing can be a part of golf’s ecosystem.
“What we’re doing shows that golf is a force for good and players have come over to us because they have another platform to choose from.
“They’re professionals, they’re independent contractors.
“They’re negotiating contracts for their benefit.
“There’s nothing wrong with a guy having the ability to enhance his value,” Norman said.
