For the record, I think Sean Able is the most interesting poster on GCA.com. Obviously the quirky course reviews that he post are very interesting to me.
More importantly, he is an American living in the UK/England (??) for many years and Sean has a unique world view that I do not have - both for golf courses and for world events. He has seen the UK as a local on the ground American on the other side of the "British Empire" for years, and now a failed/failing joining of a European Union.
USA has gone a different direction, and we have these series of "Allies" that sometimes work, and sometimes don't. Golf traveled where the Brits took it, and now we have the complicated "Allies" of Saudi Arabia using the LIV Tour to do what? I really don't know. But it is NOT about golf, in my opinion. I am also open to the concept that it could be good for diplomatic dialogue between Allies. Unfortunately, money tends to screw that up.
If everybody wants to believe it is "just golf", that it is your prerogative and I will look elsewhere for answers. John Feinstein wrote a great column(s) about current state of college athletics and LIV:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/01/ucla-usc-big-ten-expansion/As with all the conference-jumping that has taken place in this century, this is about one thing: money. This is no different from the golfers who have jumped to the Saudi-financed LIV Golf circuit claiming their goal is to grow the game. Just as the golfers are actually trying to grow their bank accounts, the college administrators are motivated by the welfare of their bottom lines.Bill Shamleffer,
I totally agree, and I wish I had gone down to the Curtis Cup at Merion.