Dave Reardon: Mark Rolfing says golf war with Saudi league could hurt game

If you don’t play golf or follow it very closely you might think the escalating war between the PGA and LIV Golf is of no concern to you. Maybe from your perspective it’s just rich guys skirmishing with other rich guys for bigger chunks of the sport’s big money.

But there definitely could be a trickle-down effect.

Golf is the most philanthropic of major professional sports — by far, according to Mark Rolfing, the long-time TV on-course reporter, analyst and former golf pro who has lived on Maui more than 40 years.

“It really is an amazing vehicle when it comes to creating charity dollars,” Rolfing said in a phone interview Tuesday from Boston, where he is preparing to work the U.S. Open this week — which, under the auspices of the USGA, will allow players who have signed on with LIV and been banned from PGA events to play.

“The PGA has raised $3 billion in charitable contributions over its lifetime. If you take the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL combined, the total is not even half.”

Friends of Hawaii Charities announced a record $1.3 million raised last year through the 2021 Sony Open in Hawaii.

These funds came from “title sponsor Sony Group Corporation, charity partner The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Inc., many donors and sponsors in the community,” according to a release from FOHC.

The money goes to more than 100 of the state’s non-profit organizations. They include the Institute of Human Services, specifically to fund its meal program for homeless people.

The record donation last year came even though fans were not permitted on the course because of COVID-19.

“People just stepped up,” FOHC president Corbett Kalama said. “Companies that would normally have used the skybox and enjoyed the amenities, knowing they weren’t able to do that, just wrote a check.”

So, on one side you have charity and on the other huge guaranteed money for players who don’t have to worry about making a cut to get paid — and that money comes from the funds of a country, Saudi Arabia, with a bad reputation for severe human rights violations.

If LIV Golf’s deep pockets successfully attract more big-name players like Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson, it could eventually cost the PGA sponsors.

“It’s going to really affect us in Hawaii if this continues,” Rolfing said. “We’re not going to see Dustin Johnson again. We’re not going to see Bryson DeChambeau again. At what point does a sponsor say, ‘Hey, it’s not worth it.’”

Rolfing said he has yet to see any indication of philanthropy from LIV Golf, and he described the defectors as “greedy” and what is happening as an attempted “hostile takeover.”

He is especially disappointed in Mickelson — who used to be widely perceived as a regular guy who happened to be on the short list of the world’s greatest golfers. And just last year he provided the sport with a chicken-skin moment when he won his sixth major, his second PGA Championship, at age 51.

Rolfing said he shared a special moment with Mickelson at the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua, where only winners of the PGA’s previous year are invited. It was the 45-time Tour winner’s first Hawaii appearance in two decades.

“I can’t believe the change from January. I talked with him 20 minutes, and the joy he was bringing everyone, even himself was so great. Cool for Phil, cool for Maui. And here we are and that’s all been basically tossed down the drain.”

Rolfing said he doesn’t understand if Mickelson’s motivation is really about helping golf’s future, as he has claimed, or his own checkbook, since he signed on with LIV reportedly for a guaranteed $200 million.

Rolfing doesn’t mince words about what some say is giving players “free agency” and will help “grow the game.”

He sees it more as a virus that could destroy the current structure that includes support of youth golf, feeder tours, and the Champions Tour for players 50 and over.

“I would think all of that could take a big hit,” Rolfing said. “The PGA provides places to play for up-and-comers and those on their way out. I don’t see the Saudis wanting to do that. The argument that it would grow the game is nonsense. I don’t see any evidence of that.”

The PGA has fired back at the defections by suspending the 17 Tour players who played in the LIV debut in London instead of the PGA’s Canadian Open last week.

“The ultimate hammer will be the Masters,” Rolfing said. “Augusta National can do whatever they want. I would not be surprised to see them not allowing (LIV players). I wish they would announce that now, because of the impact it could have, but since the Masters isn’t for nine more months they probably won’t.”

Some of the 17 who left are big names but past their prime as competitors, cashing in on their fame while they still can.

“For the most part they are players who are washed up,” Rolfing said.

Younger stars like Rory McIlroy, Tony Finau and Justin Thomas — who finished first through third at the Canadian — are staying the course.

But no one knows what the future holds.

“Basically, the PGA Tour is under siege,” Rolfing said.

It’s not just players. Experienced tournament organizers and broadcast personnel have been lured away by LIV Golf.

Did they take a shot at Rolfing, one of the game’s top veteran broadcast voices?

“(There was a) vague approach, but never officially offered anything,” Rolfing said. “They knew better.”