The exodus of PGA players to the LIV professional golf league raises questions with troubling answers.
The reports of some professional golfers signing to play for the new pro league, the LIV, remind me of an old story.
Senator Pockets, attending a fundraiser, is approached by a well-heeled lobbyist who says, “Senator, my group needs your help with some pending legislation.” “Well,” answered the Senator, “call my chief aide tomorrow with the details. How much of a contribution is your group prepared to make to one of my re-election committees?” “We were thinking $10,000,” answered the lobbyist. “My gracious!” responded Senator Pockets, “do you think my influence can be purchased?” “Oh!” the lobbyist answers, “We’ve established that. We’re just arguing for how much.”
That thinking applies to the choices players are making about whether to resign from the PGA and join the new league. In that regard, John Feinstein reports an exchange between two well-known professional golfers, Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia.
John Feinstein in The Washington Post: McIlroy and Garcia are good friends; they were in each other’s weddings. But when Garcia told McIlroy the reason for joining the LIV Tour was ‘so we can finally get paid what we deserve,’ McIlroy laughed. “Sergio,” he said, ‘We’re golfers. We don’t deserve to be paid anything.”
Garcia’s sense of entitlement also applies to what I’m seeing in many of our elected leaders. Power and money rule their decisions, and they seem to think that being elected to public office is an entitlement, not a service. If you don’t believe me, examine the faltering gun safety measures and other needed legislation that languishes in the bowels of Congress.
Just what does it mean “to deserve” something per Garcia’s logic?
Deserve is a verb that means “to be worthy.” It is derived from the Latin deservire, which means “to serve zealously.” As I understand it, the word means, “What I (and you) deserve is the privilege to serve society, our country, even our world.
In today’s parlance, deserve is a much-abused word. It’s about me. How much I deserve. Not only is it abused by golfers, other professional athletes, and team owners, but politicians also abuse it to manipulate voters into thinking that they (the politicians) have been cheated out of something they deserve.
Some golfers offer weak excuses for joining the new league, such as “It’s good for golf.” But just as Senator Pockets did, that is self-serving rationalizing, a shoddy attempt to cover the truth.
Let’s face it. Those players who have bolted the PGA for the Saudi-backed league are doing it for the money. It is greed. On the other hand, McIlroy gives all of us good advice, no matter who we are or what we do in life. We deserve to give back, not take, simply because we are here.
