Padraig Harrington says the fact that PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan has backtracked on his stance regarding Saudi Arabia involvement in the 9/11 attacks highlights the perilous state the organisation was in before this week's shock merger with LIV.
Players reacted with shock and a sense of betrayal at the proposed merger of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour's commercial operations with those of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), which bankrolls LIV Golf.
Amnesty International described the move as "more evidence of the onward march of Saudi sportswashing", while the 9/11 Families United, a community of family members who lost loved ones in the 11 September, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York, have also condemned the agreement.
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers from 9/11 were Saudi citizens and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been accused of sportswashing its contentious record on human rights by bankrolling the LIV Golf circuit.
Last year after LIV Golf first launched, Monahan was forthright in his views regarding LIV and the Saudi association with the 2001 atrocities.
"I have two families that are close to me who lost loved ones, and so my heart goes out goes to them - and I would ask any player who has left [for LIV] or any player who has ever considered leaving, have you ever had to apologise for being a member of the PGA Tour?" he said.
Earlier this week Monahan described the PGA Tour-LIV Golf merger as, "a momentous day for [the Tour] and the game of golf".
Speaking on RTÉ’s Liveline, three-time major winner Padraig Harrington addressed the criticism.
"Jay has backtracked on that," he said. "Why? Why has he backtracked?
Jimmy Dunne, an independent director of the PGA Tour board, played a key role in the approaches to PIF - the backers of LIV - and persuading Monahan to consider a deal.
Harrington says his involvement is crucial.
Dunne’s company was based in the World Trade Centre and lost 66 employees in the attack. He only missed being in the building because he was playing in a golf tournament.
He defended the move this week by saying: "I’m quite certain - and I’ve had conversations with a lot of very knowledgeable people - that the people I’m dealing with had nothing to do with 9/11.
"If someone can find someone who unequivocally was involved with it, I’ll kill them myself. We don’t have to wait around."
Harrington says the widespread condemnation of Saudi Arabia over the Twin Towers attacks could be an act of tarring everyone with the same brush.
He said: "I really have a problem with this because I was in England in the early 90s, and continually, the gutter press in Britain intermingled Ireland, Irish government, Irish people and the IRA to blame on the atrocities. They made it feel like the Irish people were to blame for the IRA bombings in the UK.
"I know enough about Ireland, but I don’t know enough about Saudi Arabia. I can only take Jimmy Dunne’s position because he should know.
"Blaming Saudi Arabia and their government seems very much like blaming Ireland for not doing enough to stop the IRA."
The 51-year-old believes the financial stare of play for the PGA Tour, and both sides looking to avoid protracted litigation, led to Wednesday’s shock decision.
"All the golfers were blindsided," he said.
"Nobody knew this was coming. A lot of them are dismayed by what has happened. When we find out what happened, it will be a little clearer.
"The Tour should act in our best interests. I have to sit here and think that they acted in our best interests this time and they did something that we don’t know about because they needed to do it.
"There is not a single player on the PGA Tour in any shape or form was looking for more money at this stage. Everybody who is left behind at this stage is exceptionally happy where they were, so it is a complete shock to them."
Harrington said that the main takeaway for the PGA Tour is that it has control over the scheduling of the sport, "the only win they could possibly get".
While acknowledging the "awful" human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia, Harrington is of the opinion that exclusion isn’t the long-term solution, highlighting the change in culture he has witnessed over the last quarter of a century in travelling to the Middle East.
"Their [Saudi Arabia] goal is to be the hub of the Middle East, they are trying overtake Dubai and Abu Dhabi and be the centre of business and tourism in the Middle East," he said.
"If it happens, it will change their culture. It changed Dubai’s culture, it changed the Middle East’s culture.
"Forcing them to do it [address human rights issues] will only make them backtrack. They have to do it on their own terms. We’d all love it to happen today, but we just can’t wave a magic wand right now.
"Are we doing enough? Are our governments doing enough?
"If Saudi Arabia was a poor country, the world would exclude them. Everybody wants what Saudi Arabia has. We all want to trade with Saudi Arabia. We export our dairy and meat to Saudi Arabia, our military technology ends up in Saudi Arabia."
For all the criticism that has come golf’s way over the last 12-18 months, Harrington also said that Irish golfers, with the exception of Graeme McDowell, turned down lucrative offers to defect.
"Golf gets bashed a lot in the media but the four Irish golfers did not go. We all said no, Rory said no to $400m, Shane Lowry said no to life-changing money, myself and Darren Clarke, we didn't go.
"Darren had a fantastic offer on the table to commentate. My friends have gone and I'm not going to judge their morals in any shape or form.
"I made my decision, they made their decision. They didn't do anything illegal, so why should I judge what they think is right or wrong? That’s not for me."
