The wrong crowd

 Justin Thomas is as right as ham on rye. And Greg Norman is ... well, I don't know what Greg Norman is, aside from not very good at choosing his words.

Thomas, see, says the PGA is absolutely within its rights to deny releases to Tour players for conflicting events such as the LIV Golf Invitational Series event in London next month. You gotta protect your turf, after all.

And Norman, who's the CEO for the LIV, which is bankrolled by Saudi oil money?

Well, ol' Greg said the other day that everybody makes mistakes. Like, you know, murdering a pesky journalist and cutting him apart with bonesaws.

That's what Saudi operatives did to Jamal Khashogghi of the Washington Post in 2018. Which Norman seemingly dismissed as, well, just one of those things. 

"Everyone has owned up to it, right?" he said in the Times of London. "Look, we've all made mistakes and you just want to learn from those mistakes and how you can correct them going forward."

Benefit of the doubt demands that maybe what Norman was talking about was not the Saudis butchering a human being like a hog, but his failing to acknowledge it when he decided to climb in bed with the butchers. Maybe that was the "mistake" he was referencing. 

Doesn't seem likely, frankly. But if not, how callous would a man have to be if he was dismissing an act of such brutality -- one that evidence suggests was green-lit by the Saudi prince himself?

"We've all made mistakes"?

Hey, Greg, we're not talking here about forgetting to pick up milk at the grocery store. Just a heads up.

Of course, these are the sorts of corners into which a man paints himself when he decides to run with the wrong crowd. The blood on their hands becomes the blood on his hands. Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.

Or in this case: Lie down with Saudi dough, get up having to explain yourself, however badly.

Any golfer who breaks ranks with the PGA Tour to play in London should have to do the same thing, and here's hoping they squirm mightily in doing so. As Thomas said the other day, that's their choice. If you want to go, go, he said. Just don't expect the PGA Tour to be very forgiving when you inevitably come crawling back.

The Blob's guess is the Tour's hard line will dissuade most of its golfers from going anywhere. The game's brightest young stars, like Thomas, will stay put because they have more future than past. Those who choose to bolt because they're ticked off at the PGA for one reason or another likely will be grumpy veterans who've already made their pile.

In any event, have at it, gentlemen. Enjoy your blood money. It won't buy you any respect, self or otherwise, but I doubt you'll miss that. If you were going to, you wouldn't have signed on to begin with.

Just don't forget what Greg Norman said: We've all made mistakes.

Good luck with yours.