Say this much for David Feherty: The man is honest.
Asked the other night why he left NBC to join the Saudi-funded LIV Golf Series, the popular announcer and funnyman cut straight to it.
“Money,” he told me. “People don’t talk about it. I hear, ‘Well, it’s to grow the game.’ Bull ... they paid me a lot of money.”
Feherty — who was in Toledo with his former NBC colleague, Gary Koch, for a fund-raiser benefiting the Dana Open presented by Marathon — later gave a similar answer to the sold-out audience at Valentine Theatre.
To which Koch stood up and said, “Finally! Someone finally said it!!”
The crowd cheered.
Hear! Hear!
Feherty’s refusal to insult our intelligence was the highlight of an entertaining evening, in which the two golfers shared stories from their playing and broadcasting careers before Feherty performed his stand-up act.
You don’t have to like LIV, a money pit of a league that exists for the sole purpose of helping the Saudis distract from their atrocities — including a horrific record on human rights and the ordered execution of journalist Jamal Khashoggi — and whitewash their global reputation. The whole thing is unsettling.
Maybe, too, you’re surprised Feherty, 63, made the leap last month.
He was part of the golf establishment — a player on the European and PGA Tours, 25 years as an on-course reporter for CBS and NBC — and has done tremendous work with his charity, the Troops First Foundation, which aids military members who were wounded while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. His foundation also helped start the 9/11 Memorial Golf Fund.
But, regardless of your thoughts, we can appreciate Feherty’s candor.
In his first extended comments on why he joined LIV — which is streaming its events online until it lands a TV deal — he did not cite the revolutionary nature of the 54-hole, no-cut shotgun format, or tell us he had been a lifelong fan of the Crushers (one of the 12 teams on the new tour).
No, he said, simply, there were three reasons. Money. The chance to be a lead analyst for the first time in his career. And ...
“An opportunity to be myself again,” Feherty said. “It’s become more and more difficult, especially in sports broadcasting, to have any kind of character. Charles Barkley can say pretty much anything he wants, because it's, ‘Oh, that's just Charles.’ And it is just Charles. But I have become more and more guarded over the last few years. There are people waiting around every corner hoping to be offended by something. [Expletive] those people.
“Our lives are being shaped by small groups of mean-spirited people who have no sense of humor. We're in danger of losing our national sense of humor because of this.”
He addressed doing business with Saudi Arabia, including its role in 9/11. (Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudis.)
“The 9 /11 Commission said that the Saudi government wasn't involved,” Feherty said. “People that criticize are doing business with China, doing business with Russia. China, in particular, is a country where they're murdering Uyghurs left, right, and center, and their human rights record is horrendous. ... You can point to various countries throughout the world. I wouldn’t want to behave like that, but wherever golf is, good happens, and I’m hoping this will do the same thing. [LIV] has said its going to donate $100 million to area charities.”
Fair enough.
In any case, we’re not here to vilify the LIV defectors, and certainly not on an occasion in which Feherty was in town to help.
Dana Open tournament director Judd Silverman said Feherty and Koch asked that their $35,000 joint appearance fee — which was already reduced to begin with — be donated to the children’s charities the tourney will support this year. In turn, the Dana Open contributed $5,000 to each of their foundations.
“These are children's charities, and that means the world to me, it really does,” Feherty told me before going on stage. “People say, ‘Thank you for coming.’ I am so happy to be here in Toledo. Really, the good that [the Dana Open] does, it makes me feel better about myself. Maybe that’s a selfish thing, but that’s the way it is.”
With that, I thanked him for coming.
First Published August 7, 2022, 9:47 p.m.
