Golfer Dylan Wu Asks If Players Need To 'Apologize' For Playing On PGA Tour; The Answer Is Simple: No

PGA Tour players don't yet know exactly how to feel about the merger between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf. That makes sense since no one knows exactly what that partnership entails at this point. Dylan Wu wondered if PGA Tour players need to "apologize" for playing on the Tour.

In short: no, they do not.

Wu appeared on ESPN's Outside the Lines with Jeremy Schaap.

"There are questions in the meeting like 'do we have to apologize for playing on the PGA Tour now because of where the money is coming from?'" Wu said.

"The PGA Tour is the place where you want to play for history. It's not about the money, necessarily. And then, basically, everything that has happened over the last few days seems like it's about the money."

What Wu is referring to is the PIF (Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund) now being heavily involved in professional golf. There's no need to rehash some of the atrocities perpetrated by the Saudi government, those are well-documented.

No, PGA Tour players don't need to "apologize" for merger with LIV Golf

But the idea that PGA Tour players are somehow complicit in those activities simply by participating in the sport is nonsense.

First, none of this is particularly new in the world of professional sports. Nike is heavily involved with the NBA and pays many professional basketball players a lot of money. A lot of that money comes from China.

Again, no need to delve deeply into the human rights violations frequently committed by the Chinese government.

Do NBA players "apologize" for taking that money? Hell no. Quite the opposite, in fact. They enjoy lecturing Americans on how terrible they believe this country to be.

LeBron James and other NBA stars take tons of money from Nike & China and have not once apologized for that. (Photo by Jim Poorten/NBAE via Getty Images)

That feels pretty "hypocritical," a word being thrown around a lot regarding the PGA Tour and Commissioner Jay Monahan.

Realistically, the PGA Tour didn't have any other option. They couldn't afford to be tied up in perpetual legal battles with PIF. Going against a nearly unlimited fund in the legal department is bad business.

The Tour also needed to guard against more players leaving for LIV Golf. They already poached several of the best golfers in the world. One of them, Brooks Koepka, just won the PGA Championship.

There are rumors that Masters Champion Jon Rahm was next.

Regardless of the decision, this has nothing to do with the players.

As Charles Barkley said last year: "If you are in pro sports, you are taking some type of money from not a great cause."

I'd expand that to pretty much all business. The more money a person makes, the higher chance that money isn't completely "clean."

All of the people clutching their pearls in response to this move probably work for a company that makes money off the backs of disenfranchised people across the globe.

So, spare me the moral outrage.

There's an easy way for Dylan Wu to relieve his discomfort

Wu's assertion that players want to play on the PGA Tour because of history and not money is nonsense. If PGA Tour events had started paying no prize money, every golfer would have left for LIV.

PGA Tour player Dylan Wu asks if PGA Tour players need to "apologize" for merger with LIV Golf and the answer is simple: no. (Photo by Eston Parker/ISI Photos/Getty Images)

In fact, the mere existence of LIV caused the PGA Tour to UP its prize pools. They did that because players play to make money. Sure, most of them love golf and want to leave a legacy.

But without the money, people wouldn't be playing golf at that level. If Dylan Wu is so committed to the cause, he can refuse the prize money he wins if he's uncomfortable about where it comes from. So could the other players that feel the same way.

I have a feeling they're not going to do that.

And quite frankly, they shouldn't.