Greg Norman and the dirty age of sportswashing

Greg Norman had a great sporting career. Anyone making a list of the best Australian golfers might conclude that only Peter Thomson, who won The Open five times but never triumphed in America, rivals him for the top place.

Now aged sixty-seven, he is making a sad spectacle of himself. As the organizer, or at least figurehead, of the Saudi breakaway tour, he is clearly a man out of his depth or, to put it mildly, a bloody fool.

There are questions that anyone promoting a sports enterprise financed by Saudi Arabia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund shouldn’t ignore and, in any case, can’t dodge: the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, for instance.

A United Nations rapporteur and the CIA have claimed that the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, ordered, or at least gave his approval, to the killing. The Crown Prince is also chairman of the Sovereign Wealth Fund, which is paying Norman to front the new tour. So what was his response?

“Everybody has owned up to it, right? It has been spoken about, from what I’ve read, going on what you guys have reported. Take ownership, no matter what it is. Look, we’ve all made mistakes and you just want to learn from these mistakes and how you can correct them going forward..”

Undoubtedly, Khashoggi made a big mistake entering that consulate, but there’s no way the poor guy can learn from it. Conversely, it may well be that the Crown Prince has indeed learned from it, to the extent at least of trying to improve his image by engaging in what we have come to call “sportswashing”, with Norman as its Persil-clean face.

You might think that he might have been better prepared for questions about the murder, for surely the $255 million LIV GolfI Invitation Series can afford to hire some PR person who is smarter than the great golfer and capable of supplying him with a better line rather than leaving him to sink.

Apparently not, however. Evidence of intelligent PR was conspicuous only by its absence in the car-crash press conference, for when he was then asked, as might have been expected, how he felt about the execution of 81 men in Saudi Arabia last month, he was, if not lost for words, provided with no convincing reply.

“I got a lot of messages but quite honestly I look forward. I don’t look back. I don’t look into the politics of things. I’m not going to get into the quagmire of whatever else happens in someone else’s world. I heard about it and just keep moving on.”

Then he got on to what was clearly for him happier ground, explaining how the new tour would protect golfers who signed up for it if they were refused release by the PGA and European tours and subsequently banned.

Well, it seems that several respected players, among them Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia, and others, perhaps not so respected, Phil Mickelson, for instance, are ready to signup. Why? They can’t surely be in dire need of the Saudi money.

A depressing business, but that’s sport or at least sportswashing for you. We’re back with the Emperor Vespasian and his tax on public urinals which his son and heir Titus objected to on the ground that it stank. So the old emperor held up a coin and said, “non olet” — this doesn’t stink. Quite so.

Consider Newcastle United. There was disapproval, even anger when the struggling club was bought with Saudi money. Some fans even protested. But a capable new manager, Eddie Howe, was appointed. Matches were won. The danger and fear of relegation were avoided.

Fans were relieved and delighted. Who now cared where the rescue money came from? What mattered was that the club’s Premiership status was saved — for another year anyway.

You may find this depressing, but that’s how the world works. It’s what will happen with Greg Norman and his money-rich tour for ageing stars and young hopefuls alike.

Few in sports today care where the money comes from. What matters is that it buys success. Sport washes the stink from the dirtiest coin. Just keep moving on, as Greg Norman says.

Sure, there are embarrassing aspects to a deal. But really, who cares? Don’t look into the politics of things, and life is that bit easier. Keep out of the quagmire of what happens in someone else’s world. Look ahead.

It reminds me of the day when an American firm took over an electronics business in my home town, and the American PR man told the workers that the future was so bright they would need sunglasses to look at it. The business was closed a couple of years later, but that’s beside the point. Keep moving on, follow the money.

Khashoggi was just an unlucky guy. None of our business. And isn’t St James’s Park in Newcastle a much happier place than it was a few months ago?