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PGA: No political motivation for moving tourney from Trump course

Courtesy of Jacob Byk, USA Today Sports

There’s a bit of drama unfolding between presumptive GOP Presidential nominee Donald Trump and the world’s foremost golfing association.

The PGA Tour just recently announced that it would be moving the Cadillac Championship from Trump’s National Doral country club in Miami to Mexico City starting next year.

That decision was met by considerable criticism from the always divisive Trump, who “joked” that the PGA Tour should look into acquiring kidnapping insurance for the move.

“I just heard that the PGA Tour is taking their tournament out of Miami and moving it to Mexico,” the presidential candidate said, via CNN.com. “They’re moving it to Mexico City — which, by the way, I hope they have kidnapping insurance. But they’re moving it to Mexico City. And I’m saying, you know, what’s going on here? It’s so sad when you look what’s going on with our country.”

That comment was in relation to a soccer star being kidnapped in Mexico last month.

The Trump/Mexico dynamic is something that has defined the primary season around the political world.

However, PGA Commissioner Tim Finchem denied that the move from Florida to Mexico City was politically motivated:

“Some of the reaction revolves around the feeling that this is a political exercise and it is not that in any way, shape or form,” he said, via the Golf Channel. “It is a sponsorship issue. We value dollars for our players. So we make decisions that are in the best interests of our players.”

The whole dynamic is interesting and brings to light a larger issue relating to Trump’s stance on outsourcing American jobs and companies to the United States’ neighbor to the south.

If the move was indeed financially motivated, it’s safe to assume the players and the larger PGA landscape will benefit from less-expensive upkeep and wages in Mexico.

Players also reacted to the move. Most of the responses were not positive, with the primary concern being the drug cartel problem in Mexico and concerns over safety.

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