Sean Passanti last saw his father when they played a round together at the now closed Tallgrass Golf Course on Long Island. Father Horace Passanti had taught his son to play, and it had become something special they shared.
“It was a really good time to spend with my father,” Passanti told The Daily Beast on Tuesday. “And we did it whenever we got the chance.”
The last father-son tour was on Sean Passanti’s 32nd birthday, June 10, 2001.
“He was really good at hitting bombs,” recalled Sean Passanti. “He was a big, strong guy. He could hit 300 yards sometimes. That’s all he cared about. And having fun. His score didn’t really turn him on.”
“And that was my last day with my father,” Passanti added.
Dad was Marsh & McClennan’s vice president of claims and had been sitting at his desk on the 100th floor of the North Tower for two hours when the plane crashed on the morning of September 11. Sean Passanti thinks his father would be one of those trying to help others if he could.
“They basically found parts of it through DNA, so I don’t know,” Passanti said. “Maybe it blew up because it was definitely close to bursting.”
Passanti added, “Not knowing is a terrible thing.”
Passanti was certain of one thing; The Saudis were complicit in the attack. He joined 9/11 Justice, a determined alliance of first responders, survivors, and families who have lost loved ones, founded by Brett Eagleson, whose father had died in the North Tower. Eagelson, father and son also loved golf. Eagelson was in his early teens and neither was good at the game, but just going to a course seemed like the perfect way for them to spend a few hours together.
“You’re out in the sun, in the fresh air, and there’s nothing to do but talk and engage with each other,” Eagelson recalled. “So it’s a great way to do that.”
Brett Eagleson, son of 9/11 victim Bruce Eagleson, sits in a baseball field bunker where his father coached on July 2, 2021, in Middletown, Conn.
Jessica Hill/AP
Both Passanti and Eagleson were infuriated when the Saudis began an attempt to “sport” their reputations by buying professional golf two years ago.
Both men were emboldened when the PGA moved to thwart the effort, using the talking points of 9/11 Justice and citing declassified documents the group had collected over 22 years to prove Saudi Arabia’s support for hijackers.
“Finally, we thought, for sure, that we had a real American ally who believed in honesty,” Eagleson said. “You know, an organization that has to be based on integrity, you know, the game of golf, you know, is thought of as a game about morality and ethics and doing the right thing.”
The PGA has reprimanded the Saudis monthly, citing how they financed human rights abuses, the execution of homosexuals, the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and 9/11.
A painting of the missing Bruce Eagleson was hung outside the 69th Regiment Armory in New York on September 13, 2001, where friends and relatives of the person missing in the World Trade Center attack could fill out missing persons forms.
TANNEN MAURY/AFP via Getty
“The families were like, ‘Where has the PGA been all these years? We could have used them to be on our side 15, 20 years ago’” said Eagleson.
Then came what Passanti calls “slap in the face” on Tuesday morning. He learned from a news alert on his cell phone that the PGA has decided to merge with LIV Golf, which has received billions of support from Saudi Arabia’s state wealth fund.
“I’m really thinking, what should I do?” said Passante. “Because I don’t watch Saudi golf.”
Eagleson said he wondered: “Did they just use us to get a better payday? Did they use our papers, our blood sweat, our tears, and our pain to negotiate a higher price?”
Passanti noted that the betrayal came on the anniversary of D-Day, when many Americans sacrificed their lives. “I fly my American flag every day at my house and I’m embarrassed to fly it right now,” he said.
He is confident that the Saudis have fooled the PGA just as they managed to evade any charges for 9/11.
That’s what Saudi Arabia is doing.”
He will turn 54 on June 10, the 22nd anniversary of his last amazing game with his father. He will continue to fight to prevent the Saudis from using their billions of dollars to wash themselves.
“The last thing I want to do is fly across the country to protest Saudi golf,” he said. “I just want my life back, but someone has to do it. You have to stand up.”