Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy called PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan a liar and a “scumbag” after the Tour merged with LIV Golf on Tuesday, saying he has insulted the families of 9/11 victims by joining with the Saudi-financed LIV.
Of the 19 terrorists that attacked the World Trade Center and caused the death of 2,977 people, 15 were from Saudi Arabia.
Watch Portnoy’s statement here:
“This commish of the PGA comes out looking like the biggest scumbag of all ranting and raving about 9/11 only to merge with Liv an hour later. What a piece of s—t,” Portnoy said. “I am so sick of this PGA commissioner talking about 9/11.”
Last year, LIV Golf, financed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, persuaded several PGA Tour greats to play for them, reportedly using “nine-figure” contracts. The PGA retaliated by banning the players from the Tour.
Families of 9/11 victims were also upset by the players’ willingness to move to the LIV, calling the move “sportswashing” and saying the players had betrayed the USA. The New York Post reported:
Last June, 911familiesunited.org, a coalition of families and survivors of the 2001 terrorist attacks, sent a scathing letter to representatives of Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed and Kevin Na accusing them of sportswashing and betraying the United States.
Fifteen of the 19 terrorists responsible for the collapse of the World Trade Towers and the deaths of nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001 were from Saudi Arabia.
Portnoy referenced a Golf Monthly headline from July 2022, titled “Jay Monahan Breaks Silence On LIV Threat – ‘My Heart Goes Out To 9/11 Families,'” which was Monahan’s “first public appearance since the first LIV Golf event.”
Portnoy tweeted, along with a screenshot of the article:
I’m gonna need Monahan to address these comments which were so clearly bullshit in real time but to invoke 9/11 to get public opinion on your side in a financial golf league dispute is disgusting.
“This is why you should never lie,” Portnoy said in his statement. “People may not like the truth but they’ll respect you for saying it. … Buddy, it’s about the money. It’s only about the money. You know it’s about the money.”
Portnoy later tweeted, “Again I don’t know how Jay Monahan sleeps at night. He co-opted 9/11 victims for the moral high ground. He clearly didn’t give a shit about them. Just using their pain as a marketing tactic. Special type of hell for guys like that.”
Others in the sports world have expressed disappointment at the decision as well. Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee called the decision “one of the saddest days in the history of professional golf.” Chamblee said, “I think this is one of the saddest days in the history of professional golf. I do believe the governing bodies, the entities, the professional entities have sacrificed their principles for profit.”
Golf analyst and instructor Peter Kostis said, “Have no idea what the options are for the PGA Tour players regarding “impeachment” of a commissioner, but I can assure you there are many players who were convinced to be loyal, who are now really pissed off.”
Anybody who thinks going after Trump for a paying a porn star to keep her mouth shit about an old affair is a good use of time or taxpayer dollars is a political pawn and can’t be trusted to give a fair opinion on anything. It doesn’t matter if you hate or love Trump. What a joke
After the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade this year, Portnoy called the decision “bananas” and said Republicans are “too dangerous to vote for” even if people are stuck with voting for “morons” like Joe Biden.