William Watson: The LIV-PGA hearings — Now the government owns golf, too? fpcomment
By their absence, the pair missed committee chairof Connecticut, whose own age has advanced to 77, going on about how golf is a “cherished American institution.” Actually, it’s not that widely cherished, not outside the demographic I’ve mentioned, and it’s a world institution, born in Scotland and nurtured in the British Isles, though the Americans do have the most competitive tour.
The senator also argued that sports, including golf, are an important part of American “soft power.” You can almost hear our parliamentarians’ ears cocking forward: we Canadians are soft-power specialists, having less and less hard power with every passing federal budget. If anyone can talk soft-power implications of the proposed One Big Golf Tour, it’s us.Article content
Sports, like jazz, rap and Hollywood, probably are a big part of America’s influence in the world. I remember a news photo of a virulently anti-American rock-thrower in some sadly unstable part of the world giving vent to his hostility to the Great Satan while decked out in an Oakland Raiders cap. The New York Yankees logo is universally ubiquitous. But even if the exercise of soft power really is an important part of American foreign policy, the U.S.
More importantly, soft power is very hard for governments to manage. In fact, when governments get involved, soft power tends to vanish. Yes, Radio Free Europe probably did help project American values behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. But if the world gets the idea that Tiger Woods and other popular golf pros are actually agents of American foreign policy, then poof!, the soft-power effect evaporates.
The U.S. does have consequential antitrust laws. And the LIV-PGA joint venture is clearly designed to stop LIV’s poaching of PGA stars. The two PGA executives admitted so Tuesday. Antitrust law doesn’t take kindly to attempts to monopolize the buyer side of a labour market. In 2015, Apple, Intel, Adobe and Google paid US$415 million to settle a lawsuit brought by employees hurt by the firms’ anti-poaching policies.
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