$3.2bn boost for rebel Saudi league – Norman

Australian golfing great Greg Norman has said he has been given an extra Us$2billion (NZ$3.2 billion) in funding from Saudi Arabia to build his rebel series of 54-hole events into a full league by 2024.

Norman claimed last week that the league was ready to launch in mid-february until Phil Mickelson’s explosive comments about the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia were published and led some players to back out.

LIV Golf, of which two-time British Open champion Norman is the chief executive, has instead set up eight 48-man events in 2022, each with a prize fund of Us$25million ( NZ$39.7 million) with the first to be staged at Centurion Club in Hertfordshire, England, from June 9-11.

The plan is to stage 10 events in 2023 and the full 14 from 2024, with Norman insisting he is looking ‘‘decades’’ into the future.

‘‘We’ve just got approval to launch our schedule into 2023, 24 and 25,’’ Norman told the BBC. ‘‘We’re looking way beyond that too. We are looking at decades.

‘‘We’ve got two billion dollars to back that up so we have additional funds in place. Twentytwo and 23 are our baiter years.

‘‘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.

‘‘We have pivoted to the fact that we’ve done invitationals and these will be our start-ups.’’

Lee Westwood, Richard Bland and Mickelson are among the players known to have asked for releases from the PGA Tour and World Tour to play at Centurion, with Sergio Garcia, Martin Kaymer and Ian Poulter also expected to take part.

‘‘We have 19 of the top 100 players committed to Centurion,’’ Norman said. ‘‘We have five of the top 50, a success rate that a lot of people didn’t think we’d be able to achieve.’’

The opening event will be streamed live on Youtube.