Last year, Rory McIlroy sat on his high horse and claimed his “values were opposed” to playing golf in the Middle East, particularly for the Saudis, who fund the LIV Golf league.
On Sunday, he won the Dubai Desert Classic in the United Arab Emirates, a country that is known as Saudi Arabia’s mini-me. Oddly, the media didn’t ask their go-to quote machine if he considered himself a hypocrite for the about-face.
On Saturday, though, Phil Mickelson recognized the blatant hypocrisy and sent out a near perfect troll tweet, mixing just the right amount of passive aggressiveness with plausible-deniability: congratulating Rory McValues performance in (cough, cough) DUBAI (all uppercase), and seeing, “if he can finish it off” (i.e. blown lead at The Open), while letting his nearly one-million followers know that they could watch “live final round action from the middle east on the golf channel (who have been constant critics of Saudi “blood money”).
What a great -7 3rd round by @McIlroyRory in DUBAI to open up a 3 shot lead. See if he can finish it off. Watch live final round action from the Middle East on the golf channel.
— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) January 29, 2023
