Opinion: Saudi-based LIV critics who ignore China abuses are hypocrites

Graeme McDowell of Smash GC on the 10th green during the pro-am before the start of LIV Golf Virginia at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club on Thursday, June 05, 2025 in Gainesville, Virginia. (Photo by Mateo Villalba/LIV Golf)

And just what is the narrative of hatred McDowell is referencing?  Most of it is being framed within the fact that LIV golf was financed by the Saudi Arabian PIF.   It's a country with a history of “human rights abuses.”  A country which – as outlined in a 2021 declassified report from the U.S. Intelligence Community – did send its agents to Turkey to kill Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi in the most heinous of ways.

To be sure – and it must be stressed time and again --the murder of Khashoggi was truly obscene and reprehensible.  As are any and every human rights violation.  But therein lies the deep-rooted hypocrisy of some who continually criticize Saudi Arabia, the PIF, LIV golf and even LIV player Phil Mickelson.  That being that they seem to regularly ignore the human rights abuses from another nation, which dwarfs the killing of Khashoggi.

When McDowell mentions the hatred he and his family faced for signing with LIV or how nasty it got, he is in no way exaggerating.  Just three years ago, Eamon Lynch, a commentator for NBC-owned Golf Channel authored an opinion column for USA Today’s Golfweek shockingly titled: "Phil Mickelson's Twitter bluster can’t distract from his reality as a shameless pawn for murderers.”

“Murderers.”  Okay.

Do those who are continually associating LIV golf with “Murderers” while triggering actual threats against those playing on that tour as well as their family members care to address the massive human rights abuses taking place daily in China?  If the killing of one journalist is rightfully labeled “murder,” what would they call the largest human rights abuse of our time: China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslims in its Xinjiang province.  A human rights abuse in which tens of thousands of men, women and children have been tortured and killed.

What about China and its sports, entertainment, academic washing?

Oh, but wait a minute.  Doesn’t China provide -- or create -- hundreds of millions to billions of dollars in fees, profits, support, and advertising for the NBA; Hollywood studios; multiple colleges and universities across the United States; and networks such as NBC (again, owner of the Golf Channel and televised the Winter Olympics from China).  Do the metrics Golf Channel commentator Lynch used to smear Mickelson also make him a “shameless pawn for murderers?”  Or for that matter, anyone who happens to work for the NBA, in Hollywood, or one of the colleges and universities receiving millions from China.

If some are going to accuse the PIF of sports washing, then by that same standard isn’t China also involved in the largest sports washing, entertainment washing, and academic washing scheme the world has ever witnessed?  Shouldn’t those attacking LIV golf, its players and the PIF be losing their minds over China?

Phil Mickelson of Hyflyers GC plays a bunker shot on the fourth hole during day two of LIV Golf South Africa at The Club at Steyn City on March 20, 2026 in Johannesburg.

Sadly, politics does now infect every single thing we see, read or touch.  It was not that long ago that if I were reading a golf article folding in the names of Graeme McDowell and Phil Mickelson, it would have been how McDowell’s exceptional play denied Mickelson yet another U.S. Open back in 2010.

Now, it’s about the hatred McDowell and his family have to endure because he dared to sign with LIV golf.  A hatred not seemingly directed at NBA players, Hollywood actors, college administrators, or even certain golf commentators.

I get that I’m a dinosaur and not a fit for this polarized, partisan and siloed world, but I really do miss my politics-free sports pages.

Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official and author of the book: The 56 – Liberty Lessons from those who risked all to sign The Declaration of Independence.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: LIV golf hatred should be shared for sports that deal with China