Forgive me, golf gods, for I’ve sinned.

I used to be on the LIV Golf event and it was nice.

The solar was shining.

The followers have been frolicking.

The beer was flowing.

And the music was blaring.

Do not depart this home if that is the garments you are going to put on,

I am going to kick you out of the home in the event you do not minimize that hair.

Your mother got here in and mentioned, what’s that noise?

Mother, you are simply jealous of the Beastie Boys.

YOU HAVE TO FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO PAR-TYYYYYYY!

[ More speed, ease, comfort displayed at PGA Merchandise Show ]

It was nearly as if this very Beastie Boys anthem had been co-opted by the Saudi-funded rogue circuit as one other shot throughout the bow of the PGA Tour.

I imply, give it some thought: Do not depart this home if that is what you are going to put on?

After which comes Bubba Watson and Sergio Garcia strolling to the tee pant! shorts as they put together to start out the LIV Golf Orlando event on the Orange County Nationwide on Friday afternoon.

Your mother got here in and mentioned, what’s that noise?

You possibly can nearly see the poised and composed PGA Tour wagging its finger on the audacity of those younger whippersnappers blaring hip hop and heavy steel from the tee field audio system after which the announcer begging the gallery to drag out their cell telephones and make some noise. That is golf…however LOUDER!!!

In the meantime, the JumboTron subsequent to the primary tee exhibits crisp photos and highlights of the LIV stars as US Navy SEAL paratroopers drop from the sky and land exactly on the primary fairway.

Because the final paratrooper floats down with an enormous American flag fluttering within the wind behind him, the gallery roars.

Ah sure, nothing says LIV Golf just like the American flag, proper?

I really feel like I am at an NFL sport, says Titusville beekeeper Nate Jester. That is thrilling. It is refreshing. I used to be on the Arnold Palmer Invitational a number of weeks in the past and it is a totally different product and a special ambiance. I really like the PGA Tour, however I additionally assume there’s a marketplace for any such golf.

The LIV Tour higher hope so as a result of it is going to find yourself spending billions attempting to launch this fledgling league amid the kicking and screaming of the PGA Tour and conventional golf followers. Sure, LIV occasions are totally different and clearly geared toward attracting a youthful demographic with a workforce format, a extra relaxed gown code for golfers and shorter occasions. The primary day of the three-day event in Orlando began at 1:15 PM with a shotgun begin and was over by 5:30 PM. Followers may present up after lunch and get house in time for supper.

[ Welcome to Florida – the Final Four, college basketball capital of the world ]

Full disclosure: As an older golf fan, I favor the extra serene, low-key ambiance of PGA Tour tournaments, although even these occasions have gotten louder and rowdier through the years. Whereas I can see the attraction of the LIV format, I like the truth that golf stays the one bastion of civility, decency, and even occasional solitude that is still in sports activities followers.

Will LIV change all that? We’ll see. Proper now, although, these LIV golfers could also be making some huge cash, however they are not getting numerous consideration. The crowds on the Orange County Nationwide have been high quality and clearly aided by low cost tickets and free parking, however nothing just like the packed galleries and sold-out hospitality tents at Bay Hill final month. Likewise, TV scores on the hard-to-reach CW community dwarf these of the PGA Tour.

Marquee LIV golfers like Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau, who as soon as carried out underneath the brilliant lights of Broadway, now carry out on the Yee Haw Dinner Present in Kissimmee.

LIV, after all, has stolen among the PGA Excursions’ greatest stars with unprecedented assured contracts (similar to NBA and Main League Baseball gamers get), purses that eclipse these on the PGA Tour, and continuous tournaments that imply everybody is bound to make it. receives a commission.

The PGA Tour was pressured to reply by rising its prize cash and introduced a number of weeks in the past that subsequent seasons schedule will characteristic considerably extra no-limit tournaments with smaller fields the place everybody will receives a commission. A lot for the PGA Tour portraying LIV’s defectors as a bunch of money-grabbing scumbags who do not wish to make their cash’s price.

LIV Golf mockingly tweeted when the PGA Tour introduced nonstop occasions instantly following the Arnold Palmer Invitational: Imitation is the very best type of flattery. Congratulations PGA Tour. Welcome to the longer term.

An argument may very well be made that if the PGA Tour had been proactive and showered its star athletes with extra assured cash and perks, there would by no means have been a local weather for the LIV Tour to exist.

Or, then once more, possibly LIV will exist it doesn’t matter what. In spite of everything, it’s backed by the Saudi Public Funding Fund price an estimated $700 billion, and it’s no secret that the Saudi authorities makes use of its golf league as a type of sports activities laundering in an obvious try and divert consideration from the nation’s many human rights abuses.

Consequently, LIV golfers are portrayed as sellouts who’ve offered their souls for the almighty greenback. Iconic golfers like Phil Mickelson who have been as soon as beloved at the moment are seemed down upon. Golfers like Northern Eire’s Graeme McDowell, a US Open champion who’s a longtime Orlando resident, have been as soon as seen as certainly one of golf’s good guys however at the moment are portrayed because the villain within the black hat.

[ PGA Merchandise Show returns to normal: Being with people matters. ]

“I am not a man who’s used to numerous negativity directed his approach,” McDowell remembers of the tumultuous interval final yr when he first introduced he was becoming a member of the LIV tour. It was very troublesome for me to focus and focus on what I used to be doing. I found that I am extra delicate than I believed I used to be and that I do not care what folks assume. It is laborious to defend your self when you’ve questions which can be principally unanswered with regards to geopolitics on this planet in relation to Saudi Arabia.

In actuality, many geopolitical questions relating to sports activities and consumerism on this nation are troublesome to reply. It fascinates me why we anticipate American golfers who take Saudi cash to be totally different than the massive American companies (see Financial institution of America, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and so forth.) that do enterprise in Saudi Arabia.

And lest we neglect, the PGA Tour has been touring China for years regardless of the numerous Chinese language Uighur Muslims who have been imprisoned and killed in slave labor camps. And everyone knows that the fighters for social justice within the NBA have been amassing billions in China for years, regardless of unfathomable violations of human rights within the nation that in all probability threw the COVID virus on the world and is certainly one of America’s greatest enemies. If I’ve mentioned it as soon as, I’ve mentioned it 1,000,000 instances: The one time LeBron James and different NBA gamers shut up and dribble is when somebody mentions the atrocities happening in China.

I may go on and on about holding LIV golfers to double requirements. What about all of us pumping cash into the Chinese language economic system with our dependancy to the Chinese language-made iPhone? How about FIFA holding the World Cup in Qatar, a rustic that has related human rights points to Saudi Arabia relating to girls and members of the LGBTQ group?

However hey, possibly the road from that Beastie Boys music that blared via the audio system on the Orange County Nationwide this weekend mentioned it finest:

Dad caught you smoking, and he says, No approach!

That hypocrite smokes two packs a day.

Let’s all be trustworthy with ourselves.

LIV golfers are actually only a drastic microcosm of the remainder of us.

All of us benefit from the fruits of freedom whereas supporting autocratic nations that rob their very own residents of the dream of democracy.

Opposite to what the Beastie Boys inform us, we’re not combating for our proper to be entertained in at this time’s international financial world of geopolitics.

We simply conveniently flip a blind eye to the violation of human rights.

E-mail me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on Twitter @BianchiWrites and take heed to my Open Mike radio present each weekday from 6-9:30am on FM 96.9, AM 740 and HD 101.1-2