This year’s major championship golf season is upon us, and besides showcasing the world’s top players it has also provided a massive stage for the debate over sportswashing
(Editor’s note: The author will be testifying on June 8 at the Commons Committee on Canada’s Sanctions Regime.)

This year’s major championship golf season is upon us, and besides showcasing the world’s top players it has also provided a massive stage for the debate over sportswashing; the inclusion of players from a startup golf league backed by Saudi Arabia has reignited the debates over the kingdom’s alleged motivation to sponsor the league to distract attention from its human rights record.

Last month, the PGA Championship wrapped up at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York, while the Masters closed out its pine-straw and Azalea-drenched tournament at Augusta National Golf Club just a few weeks prior: “a tradition unlike any other” as legendary CBS Broadcaster Jim Nantz has declared for decades.

This year, however, the on-course pageantry of who would don the champion’s green jacket wasn’t the only tradition on display: an all-too-common debate on the role of foreign influence in the political and popular culture of global democracies flowed as an undercurrent to the tournament, much like the waters of Rae’s Creek which wind through Augusta.