Page 24 - Golf World (February 2020)

JOHNHUGGAN

STRAIGHT TALKING Onceyou start

notgoing to events

citingmoral outrage,

wheredoes it end?

t’s time to talk politics. Stay calm. Politics and golf,
actually. It has forever been a potent and volatile mix,
one that is unfortunately both inevitable and
Iinherent, especially when the professional
game is our focus. In that arena, players and
administrators are more and more having to
ponder the direction of their moral compasses.
Not that too many seem to be in any doubt.
Not, say, when it comes to competing in Saudi
Arabia, a nation where, according to Amnesty
International, “torture and other ill-treatment
of detainees remains common.”
Indeed, just over three months after Saudi
Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi was
extrajudicially executed inside the Saudi Arabian consulate in
Istanbul, the European Tour was in the Middle East state plane, spent a week or so in a nice hotel and written about
for the Saudi International. No doubt highly compensated, an inconsequential sport. (Although I do draw the line at
four of the then world’s top-five players – Justin Rose, Saudi Arabia. Not going there. Not ever.)
Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau As a result, I am at best ambivalent when analysing my
– were in the field. own decision-making. To be honest, I have no idea what
At the time, European Tour executive director Keith would be the 100 per cent “right” thing to do. On one
Pelley was unrepentant. Which was not surprising. The Old hand, I have bills to pay and mouths to feed. On the
World circuit has been holding events in the oil-rich Middle other, I am appalled by so much of what I read about
East since 1989 and now has as many as six across the some of the places I have been.
region. As was ever the case, money talks long and loudly in I’ve heard both sides of the argument, of course. Once
professional sport. you start down the road of not going to events citing
“Our main focus is the safety and security of our players moral outrage, where does it end? If you take things to
and staff,” Pelley said. “Like many global companies who somewhere not even too close to the nth degree, a case can
operate in the region, we monitored the situation. Having currently be made for not visiting the United States. In
looked at that – and having done our due diligence in terms Washington DC – “the nation’s capital” – only the really
of safety and security – we’re moving forward and looking interesting murders make it into the newspapers, so cheap
forward to this new chapter on the European Tour.” has human life apparently become.
That view hasn’t changed. During a sit-down with some On the other hand, there are those who tell me that the
journalists during the DP World Tour Championship in darker sides of anywhere are usually exaggerated. Take
Dubai, Pelley was impishly asked if Sergio Garcia (who was Portrush. Had The Open gone to Northern Ireland two
summarily and correctly disqualified from the 2019 Saudi decades ago at the height of The Troubles, would the
International after damaging a series of greens in a fit of event have been played unmolested? I tend to think it
temper) was back for the 2020 event as “a punishment.” would, given golf’s ability to cross divides.
Silence was the response from the 54-year old Canadian. So, going forward, what should I do? Continue to
“Next question,” said the tour’s head of media. wallow in my ignorance of what is going on wherever my
Okay, who am I to talk? I write to you as a journalist who job takes me? Or make a principled stand at last? Over to
has many times covered tournaments in countries like you. Any and all advice welcome.
China, Turkey and the aforementioned United Arab
Emirates. None of those nations has an unblemished record
in the area of human rights. Far from it. But, over and over, I John Huggan follows the PGA and European Tours. He is the
have turned a Nelsonian eye to those abuses, jumped on a author of seven books and has written for Golf World since 1992.

24 Golf World February 2020 | golfworldtop100.com