The PGA Tour’s decision to partner with LIV Golf is monumental on many levels. And while there are still plenty of unknowns about what the arrangement will entail, one thing seems clear: PGA commissioner Jay Monahan has a long few days ahead of him.
Many PGA players have voiced their frustration and grievances with the way Monahan secretly joined forces with LIV and for not sending a letter about the decision until after the news broke publicly.
Betrayal is a word at least a few players have uttered anonymously.
Jay Monahan: PGA Tour, LIV won’t come together — and they can’t co-exist
Monahan had been embroiled in a lawsuit with LIV Golf; he also had dished out suspensions to players who left the PGA Tour for the upstart league over the past year or so.
And then there’s the video below: An interview with CBS’ Jim Nantz during last year’s Canadian Open showing Monahan candidly discussing why PGA players should remain loyal to the Tour.
Nantz referenced a New York Post story about the 9/11 Families United coalition sending letters to the agents of a handful of LIV golfers, “expressing their outrage toward the golfers for participating in the new league, and accusing them of sportswashing and betraying the United States.”
Monahan said, “I have two families that are close to me that lost loved ones,” adding, “my heart goes out to them, and I would ask that any player that has left, or that would ever consider leaving, have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?”
9/11 Families United issues a statement about Jay Monahan
Following the PGA Tour’s decision to partner with LIV Golf, the 9/11 Families United coalition released a statement in response, from its chairman Terry Strada, whose husband Tom died in the World Trade Center’s North Tower.
The statement reads as follows:
“9/11 Families United is shocked and deeply offended by the newly announced merger between the PGA Tour and the LIV Golf league that is bankrolled by billions of sportswashing money from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Saudi operatives played a role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and now it is bankrolling all of professional golf.
“PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan co-opted the 9/11 community last year in the PGA’s unequivocal agreement that the Saudi LIV project was nothing more than sportswashing of Saudi Arabia’s reputation. But now the PGA and Monahan appear to have become just more paid Saudi shills, taking billions of dollars to cleanse the Saudi reputation so that Americans and the world will forget how the Kingdom spent their billions of dollars before 9/11 to fund terrorism, spread their vitriolic hatred of Americans, and finance al Qaeda and the murder of our loved ones. Make no mistake – we will never forget.
“Mr. Monahan talked last summer about knowing people who lost loved ones on 9/11, then wondered aloud on national television whether LIV Golfers ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour. They do now – as does he. PGA Tour leaders should be ashamed of their hypocrisy and greed. Our entire 9/11 community has been betrayed by Commissioner Monahan and the PGA as it appears their concern for our loved ones was merely window-dressing in their quest for money – it was never to honor the great game of golf.”
9/11 Families United is a coalition that consists of family members who either lost loved ones or who survived the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks in 2001. According to its website, its community includes more than 10,000.