Brian Stowell
8 posts


While there are many people celebrating the demise of LIV, for far too long there were far too many mute mouths about the cancer that LIV was and is.
It tilted the game towards greed. It muddied the meritocratic aspects of golf. It’s likely that the philanthropic foundations of this game will, to some extent, be eaten into to fund the future equity of PGA Tour players. It stalled, or killed, the trajectory of hall of fame players. It divided the game.
The only win, as I see it, is that LIV sought to launder the atrocities of the Saudis, but instead it further highlighted them.
As LIV players sold their autonomy, the whole sport seemed to be in the throes of transition, from professionalism to authoritarianism.
But the golf world knew that the Saudis were not interested in golf and that sport has norms that are worth preserving.
Money, not for merit, but for the murky purposes of sportwashing crowds out those norms.
It is in the striving to get better that one gets richer, that is the transformative influence of sport; both the athlete and audience benefit from the norms of competition. Sportswashing, what MBS/PIF were attempting to do with LIV by paying athletes for their celebrity to confer legitimacy on their murderous regime, reverses this process because it is only ostensibly about the competition, it is primarily about the obfuscation of the horrors of the regime. Both the athlete and the audience are robbed of the transformative influence of sport and what they are participating in and watching is merely a facade, a base amusement.
So it is no surprise that almost nobody watched.
Good riddance to the Saudi backed LIV.
English

@elonmusk I would but the 2026 X I bought a month ago still hasn’t updated from 13.2.9. Please update!
English

Try Tesla self-driving
Tesla@Tesla
FSD Supervised today is a completely different experience compared to earlier versions
English

New @CallawayGolf Quantum just dropped and these are the biggest carry numbers I’ve ever seen.
English

@freewilllyyyy It showed me you swing a 9 iron at 90 mph. Impressive!
English

@georgiaballgolf Not legal in competitions. The old Vaseline trick to reduce spin. It appears this young lady is getting paid to promote this product. The evidence is on the “birdie” putt. Notice the video is cut and she is re-putting from a different location.
English

@adamyounggolf Definitely a draw. Assuming the path isn't too far in-to-out, it will be back to center at about 150 yards. Give or take!
English

Starbucks raising wages at least 3% starting Jan. 1 trib.al/0mRr50Z
English







