IMPACTING LIVES THROUGH THE GAME OF GOLF and ITS PRINCIPLES

It was posted that our next tip would be titled "Do You Begin Each Day Moving From Bed to Burden, "in keeping with our recent theme of daily preparation for success. However, due to the tension around the upcoming United States Open, we thought it called for an audible.

Unlike the LPGA tour, men's professional golf has a very limited history of openly gay players. The topic of the LGBT community and the U.S. Open intersects with the sport's ongoing efforts in inclusion, player advocacy, and policies surrounding gender-based tournament eligibility. 

The United States Golf Association (USGA), which runs the U.S. Open and U.S. Women's Open, strictly enforces a Competitive Fairness Gender Policy to govern women's tournament eligibility. This policy has occasionally been the subject of controversy, notably leading transgender golfer Hailey Davidson to file a lawsuit against the USGA and LPGA after being denied entry into the U.S. Women's Open qualifiers. 

Since the U.S. Open played a prominent role in Tadd Fujikawa's career, who in 2006 became the youngest player ever to qualify for the U.S. Open at 15. Twelve years later, in 2018, he made global headlines by becoming the first male professional golfer to come out as gay publicly. Though the U.S. Open taking place at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club is a strictly competitive, merit-based championship that runs concurrently with Pride Month celebrations. Numerous regional golf tournaments across the country (such as the Pride Cup in Orlando and the Rainbow Cup) take place throughout the year to celebrate the LGBT community, raise funds for charity, and promote visibility.

Rory McIlroy has announced that he will not wear wristbands or apparel featuring the LGBTQ+ rainbow symbol during the 2026 PGA Tour season, emphasizing that professional golf should remain focused entirely on skill, on-course strategy, and competition rather than external symbols or social messaging. He explained: "I want golf to preserve the pure integrity of the sport, centered on what happens on the course." The statement immediately ignited heated debate across the golf community, sharply dividing opinions between those who support Rory's right to express his personal views and those who argue that the sport must continue to actively promote inclusion, diversity, and respect for all communities at the highest level. 

Why? Has Fujikawa been blocked from competing? THAT's "BS." IT'S ABOUT CONTROVERSY, which, in my opinion, is part of the left-wing NBC Sports' game plan, which has changed The Golf Channel's tone since acquiring it. Fact is, the game of golf is now vulnerable to their attack.

As you might imagine, I watch a considerable amount of golf on YouTube. As a result of this, I get inundated with golf videos. Recently, I saw a video titled "The Five Biggest Cheaters on the PGA Tour." The first time I saw it, I bypassed it. However, the controversy brewing over the upcoming U.S. Open got me to watch. As I was watching and listening to a couple of reputable players who have a lot to say, my lights went on. I had to come to grips with the state of the game.

Of the five names mentioned, there was really nothing to be surprised about, since these names have been out there for quite some time. We're talking about names like Reed, Mickelson, Singh, and Garcia. Then came the bombshell, as they say in politics. Voted the number one cheater in the history of the PGA Tour was none other than Gary Player. WHAT! The golfer who brought this to light did so because of something Player did in the 1983 Skins Game. Tom Watson, another player in the group along with Palmer and Nicklaus, observed what Player did. This infraction occurred on the 17th hole with $175,000 of skins on the line. Player won the hole. 

After the 18th hole, Watson pulled Gary Player aside and challenged him on what he did. That was the first time anyone had ever challenged him. Watson was later contacted by the New York Times and said, "He's been doing it for years." 

The conscience that once policed the sport has slowly been replaced by cameras, video replay, and TV viewers calling in penalties from their living rooms. Some players now treat the rulebook like a negotiation tool, something to work around rather than honor. 

In the 2018 United States Open at Shinnecock Hills on the13th hole of the third round. Phil Mickelson hit a putt that was still moving. The ball was rolling away from the hole, picking up speed on a fast green, heading somewhere bad. So, Mickelson ran after it and hit it again while it was still in motion. That is against the rules. A two-stroke penalty was applied.

Here's the part that really got under people's skin. He did it on purpose. He knew what he was doing. He accepted the penalty and moved on, having prevented his ball from ending up in a far worse position. He turned a rules penalty into a strategy. His explanation afterward was one of the most unusual things a professional golfer has ever said in a post-round interview. He said, "It is a disrespect to the championship. It was certainly not meant that way. It was meant to, you know, take advantage of the rules." He knew he understood exactly what he had done, and he did it anyway because the math made sense to him. 

When Mickelson chose to accept two strokes in exchange for a better lie, he did not just bend a rule. He broke the idea that rules carry moral weight. The golf world has since learned that this once media and fan darling is fighting many serious demons. 

Next, Patrick Reed was in a waste bunker. The cameras catch Reed clearly. Twice, he used practice swings to sweep sand away from behind his ball, improving the lie he would play from. A two-stroke penalty was applied. What came after the penalty was the moment that defined this story. 

Reed did not say he made a mistake. He did not say he did not know the rule. He challenged the evidence itself. He said it is my word versus their word, and they were not standing there. "They had a camera angle. So because of that, you know, I mean, you do not really have a choice." He was saying that because the officials were not physically standing beside him, their verdict, based on video footage, should carry less weight than his own account of what happened. The entire system rests on the assumption that conscience is the first line of defense. 

Reed was not just rejecting the penalty. He was rejecting the footage. He was rejecting objective proof. He wanted his word to override video evidence that millions of people could watch with their own eyes. Reed did not step back and consider whether the footage was telling the truth. He tried to make the footage irrelevant. That is not the mindset of someone who believes golf is a game with conscience. That is the mindset of someone who believes winning the argument matters more than playing it straight. 

Lee Trevino has a video out where he talks about golf's biggest frauds. When thinking of the word "fraud," this video is not fraudulent, as you might think. For instance, he referred to Rory McIlroy. Trevino says McIlroy is one of the most gifted natural golfers ever. The fraud he spoke of was a new disease that is being experienced on the tour called "Corporate Dependence". Jim Nantz has commented just how difficult it is to get an honest interview that sponsors, agents, or sports psychologists don't control. 

The fraud Trevino refers to is that the golf world cannot get to see the real Rory McIlroy because his corporate pushers control every aspect of his life. The statement I wrote previously in this tip is an example of that. What McElroy is saying is not really threatening; in fact, it's very safe. In this situation, the problem stems from pushers injecting themselves into this great game and, little by little, causing controversy, just as is happening in our country. It's the same faction trying to destroy anything good. 

What we are experiencing is a tragic but not surprising breakdown of the human condition, and it has found the great game of golf vulnerable to the LGBT movement now. Relativism has done its work by making God irrelevant. The professionals today are chattel owned by bloodsucking agents, making corporate dependence cut with a false stardom more addictive than anything that can ever be ingested. 

Greg Norman and LIV are too stomach-turning to warrant inclusion in today's demise of the game as we once knew it. Norman paid himself $50 million a year for 2 years as chairman of LIV, and the man is a miserable, disgruntled, failed player known more for what he blew than what he won. 

Is it too late for the game of golf? Has the LIV controversy, coupled with the enormous money now on both circuits, led to the game's demise? The winner of Jack's tournament received four million dollars for a week's work. It's less than twenty-four hours since the victory, and I've already forgotten the winner's name. Nevertheless, four million will make the holiest of the holy feel a bit different and show very little concern for what's going on in the background.