Greed is good. That’s the quote from Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko in the 1987 movie "Wall Street”. Specifically, Douglas said “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good." Doubling up, Gekko went on to say that greed “in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, for knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind."
Greed has been good for those professional golfers who have abandoned their respective golf tours to follow the money and join the Saudi Golf League, self-dubbed the LIV Golf Tour. (LIV is not an acronym; it is the roman numeral for the number 54 (L = 50, V = 5, I = I; placement of the I before the V acts to subtract one from 5, resulting in 4.) (More on the meaning of 54 later.)
While Gekko’s statement reflected the zeitgeist of the day in 1987, a more time-honored position reflects the opposite sentiment. The New Testament in 1 Timothy 6:10 (NASB) holds that “the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
Both sentiments apply to the golfers who have left the PGA and DP tours. They have left for the money, plain and simple. Mickelson, an inveterate gambler whose debts have been documented both in this blog (here), by Alan Shipnuck in his recent Mickelson biography, and by Mickelson himself here, purportedly left the PGA Tour the LIV for an astounding $200 million, according to the Golf Channel and other outlets. Dustin Johnson, he of 24 PGA tour victories and two majors championships, reportedly abandoned the PGA Tour for $120 million, according to press reports. And the list goes on.
Even if the source of the LIV money was somehow less morally repugnant, and the concomitant “sportswashing” effort less transparent, the pure greed involved in the creation and operation of the Saudi Golf League would still repulse. Not that we expected anything less from the solipsistic, mirthless, old and tired band of LIV golfers that once roamed the PGA Tour. Certainly, as Timothy remarked, those former PGA Tour golfers, by grabbing for the gold, have wandered away from the PGA faith and its faithful fans. Greed has been good for them so far. It remains to be seen if they have pierced themselves with many griefs.
© 2012-22 R.E. Kelly
AMDG
