Norman and Saudis cannot be bigger than game of golf

Having been invited on both occasions by the tournament promoters, I attended the first two stagings of the Saudi International, even though I know some of my colleagues – my oldest daughter, too – were unimpressed due to the country’s human rights record.

I did so because it was a Europeantour event featuring some of the world’s top players – with a healthy Scottish contingent – and I felt prepared to give it a chance, just as some of my predecessors in this business had done when the likes of Dubai and qatar became new destinations.on both trips,iw as made to feel very welcome and it was a real experience, for instance, to see people flocking to Mecca totally unaware that Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson Dechambeau were in action on the other side of Jedd ah in king abdul l ah Economic City.

I was intrigued to sit down on my first visit wi thy a sir Al Rumayyan, the head of saudi arabia’ s Public Investment Fund, and hear how it planned to try and grow the game, as was the case with in a later telephone chat with Majed Al Sorour, the CEO of Saudi Golf.

It was through those dealings with Golf Saudi that I was invitedto join a conference call with Greg Norman, inset, on Friday about his newrol east heceo of LIV Golf Investments, which is set to stage 10 new events worth over $200 million that are being hailed as “only the beginning” by the australian. due to a company policy about Non Disclosure Agreements, I declined and the saudi international has lost its appeal from my working perspective through it now being part of the Asian rather than European Tour.

Details of those 10 events have yet to be released and, while a burgeoning Asian Tour can certainly be good for the game, golf as as port will be the big loserif we are about to see lawyers fighting to release players from either the PGA Tour or European Tour, both of which, incident ally, are right to stand their ground.

Let’s hope Greg Norman and the Saudis do, indeed, intend to be“cooperative” and a“respectfulsupporter of the game at every level” because golf is bigger than any individual or group of individuals.