US$2BN MORE FOR TOUR
RIYADH. - Greg Norman has revealed he has secured US$2bn of extra funding from Saudi Arabia to build his breakaway invitational golf series into a full super league by 2024.
In his first interview since securing the deal, Norman told BBC Sport that his plans stretch “decades” into the future and that within two years a 14-tournament global series will be underway.
The 67-year-old Australian is the chief executive of LIV Golf Investments, which will stage an inaugural invitational tournament worth a record $25m, between 9-11 June at the Centurion Club near St Albans.
Norman defended the source of his financial backing which comes from the Saudi’s Public Investment Fund, and says that five of the world’s top 50 golfers have already committed to the Centurion tournament.
“The whole notion is to changing the look and the whole presentation of the way the game has been played over the last 53 years,” the two times Open champion said. His tournament will be played over 54 rather than 72 holes and will include a team element with players teeing off simultaneously around the course in a “shotgun start”.
“We’ve just got approval to launch our schedule into 2023, 24 and 25. We’ve got $2bn to back that up so we have additional funds in place.
“And just because we are talking about 23, 24 and 25, we’re looking way beyond that too. We are looking at decades.”
Several players from the PGA Tour and European-based DP World Tour have been seeking waivers from those organisations to allow them to play the opening event in England.
The second tournament is due to be played in Portland, Oregon in July. PGA Tour by-laws preclude members from competing on a rival tour in the United States. It means they face possible bans if they sign up for Norman’s first American event.
“We have 19 of the top 100 players committed to Centurion,” Norman stated. “We have five of the top 50, a success rate that a lot of people didn’t think we’d be able to achieve.”
LIV Golf Investments plan to reveal the names of who will be competing next week, when golfing attention will centre around the next men’s major, the US PGA Championship at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
English stars Lee Westwood and Richard Bland have already revealed they have sought permission to play the Centurion event. Others thought to be involved include Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Martin Kaymer.
Norman defended the prospect of already wealthy golfers playing for vast sums at a time of increasing economic hardship. “I can’t speak about that side of the politics,” he said.
“Over 40 years of being involved in professional golf, I’ve played through a lot of recessions and a lot of inflationary times. Sport is always looked on as being an outlet to some degree.
“Golf, quite honestly, the players are the lowest paid on the totem pole compared to soccer and some sports in the US, one of the lowest paid.
“From my perspective these players deserve this opportunity to go and play for this because they haven’t been able to play for this in the past, when they should have been.”
Norman explained that his initial Invitational Series is just a beginning. “Twenty-two and 23 are our baiter years. We are a start up, basically,” he said.
“Of course we have had to pivot because there have been some obstacles thrown in our way with a couple of the institutions — the PGA Tour and DP World Tour — but we have pivoted brilliantly.