Saudi golf: Sand dunes to sand traps.

Saudi Arabia has used its oil and its money to help -- and torment -- the U.S.

Saudi Arabia is the world's "swing producer" of oil. They have oil to sell, but don't need to sell all they can produce. By raising or lowering production they manage the quantity of oil and therefore its price.

A month ago they were in the news when they announced they will cut production beginning in July. The price of oil went up. Gasoline prices went up. That affects inflation and inflation consciousness. They just made things harder for Biden. Their $2 billion investment in Jared Kushner's brand new hedge fund was a goodwill gesture with Trump. Last week the PGA announced a planned merger with LIV, the new Saudi professional golf association. Some of the tournaments are at Trump properties.

Jack Mullen lives in Washington, D.C. He closely follows both politics and sports and he reads history. The news of the PGA/LIV merger combined all these interests.

Jack Mullen and Jennifer Angelo

Guest Post by Jack Mullen

The Arabian Peninsula ended the 19th Century with feuding Bedouin tribes fighting each other. Outside the peninsula, no one cared. European countries, saved by the 1815 Congress of Vienna, ended the 19th Century with their empires crumbling, destined for a tumultuous 20th century. Meanwhile, the U.S. entered the new century extending its Manifest Destiny’s reach by plucking pieces of the weak Spanish Empire from the Caribbean to the Philippines. 

Abd al-Azziz al Saud, with his band of 30 brothers, after collaborating with various rivals, declared victory in 1902. Among the previous rivals that merged with Emir al-Azziz, the most notable was a Bedouin faction that consisted of Wahhabi Islamic purists, the Ikhwans. Abd al-Azziz steadily increased his power to the point that, in 1932, he declared himself King of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A year later, in 1933, oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia. Amid the Depression and the New Deal, Roosevelt and his Administration found time to establish diplomatic relations with them.

Abd al Azziz de Saud quickly requested that U.S. petroleum companies  help develop Saudi oil resources. Much to the displeasure to the House of Saud’s Wahhabi faction, the Saudi government and Standard Oil of California established ARAMCO, the Arab American Oil Company.

Abd al-Azziz de Saud and Roosevelt formed a long-distance mutual admiration society. FDR left Yalta Conference February 11, 1945, and made a bee-line to the America’s wartime embassy, the U.S.S. Quincy, docked in the Suez Canal. FDR met with the aging Saudi monarch on the Quincy’s top deck. In deference the King’s strong Islamic beliefs, FDR wisely ditched his cigarettes and cigarette holder on the Quincy’s elevator. The two old men formed a secret alliance. The U.S. needed Saudi oil for WWII. The Saudis wanted protection from neighboring enemies. In exchange for Saudi oil, the U.S. would provide the Saudis with military assistance.

Saudi oil helped the Allied war effort, as well as the U.S. auto industry in the booming post-war years. Military bases in Saudi Arabia benefited House of Saud greatly, but at a long-term cost to the U.S. As the world dependence in oil grew, so did the entanglement of Saudi and American oil families, including a Texas oil family, the Bushes. By the end of the 20th century, the Saudis and the Bush families were large contributors to the Carlyle Investment Group. Ex-President George Herbert Walker Bush was on the Carlyle Board of Directors from 1998-2003, joining just two years after his Presidency.

As President, George HW Bush thought he was saving Saudi oil fields when the U.S. military quickly removed the invading Iraqi army from Kuwait. Maybe he did save Saudi oil fields, although Saddam claims he received the tacit U.S. approval from Ambassador April Glaspie to invade and stop at Kuwait. The American invasion of Kuwait did not sit well with the Wahhabis, nor with the most prominent Wahhabi, the Saudi, Osama bin Laden.

Then, the 9/11 attacks. We know 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudi nationals.

A group of hawkish conservatives including Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and Donald Rumsfeld, penned a letter in 1998 to President Clinton, urging him to remove Saddam Hussein and his regime from Iraq. Clinton rejected the idea. George W. Bush became President in 2001. His Vice President and the Secretaries of Defense and State liked the idea of removing Saddam Hussein’s regime from Iraq. The opportunity to go after Saddam gained traction soon after 9/11. Using the buzzword "terrorist," which the perpetrators of 9/11 most assuredly were, the administration made the case that there was no greater terrorist on the world stage than Saddam Hussein, a madman in possession of weapons of mass destruction. The  Neocons in the Bush Administration pulled a bait and switch, changing the focus from the Saudi terrorists to Saddam Hussein, who, as we know, did not possess weapons of mass destruction.

In an attempt to offset Saudi Arabia’s dismal human rights record, the Saudi Government set up a successful Public Investment Fund (PIF) in 1971. Quietly, PIF money spread around the world. Uber received $3.2 billion PIF funds.

The Saudi sovereign wealth fund found a warm welcome in the sporting world, especially soccer. Golf is another story. Saudi Arabia’s newly established golf tour, LIV, challenged the PGA’s anti-trust exemption by signing 11 PGA golfers to expensive contracts. Phil Mickelson’s $200 million signing bonus sent shock waves through the golf world. Victims of 9/11 objected to Saudi money being tossed at wealthy golfers. PGA commissioner Jay Monahan, invoking memories of 9/11, said the PGA would never deal with the new Saudi league.

Golf is a conservative sport with a hallowed tradition. LIV decided to shake up golf. LIV tournaments are set up to attract a different, younger crowd. Team-play, employed by colleges and high schools, is a big part of LIV tournaments, as is loud music. Loud music seems popular at football and basketball games, why not golf?

After a year of LIV golf, Monahan stunned the golf world by meeting secretly with Saudi’s PIF head, Yassir Al-Rumayann, in Vienna. Monahan came out of that meeting and announced of a PGA-LIV merger.

The PGA’s commercial and business rights will now be owned by a new for-profit entity owned by LIV (PGA is a non-profit organization). Mickelson and other LIV players who had challenged the PGA’s anti-trust exemption, dropped their lawsuits. They also cropped suits against LIV for violating PGA players’ contracts. The PGA had been losing money. The Saudis knew this. The cost of all the lawsuits put Monahan in a corner. He cried uncle. The Saudis now play a prominent part in pro golf. Golf fans can now take Uber to PGA matches, thanks to the Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund.

Victims of 9/11 are stunned. Monahan prepared himself for being a called a hypocrite. Two different Senate Committees, including Ron Wyden’s Finance Committee, are investigating the merger. So is the U.S. Department of Justice. Monahan has ended up hospitalized with some undisclosed illness.

Who knew what placid, old golf could do to Saudi-U.S. relations!

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