Saudis wanted Nicklaus
TULSA, Okla. — If the Saudi Arabian organizers of the LIV Golf Invitational Series had their way, Jack Nicklaus — not Greg Norman — would have been the face of their new breakaway circuit.
In a story published on the Fire Pit Collective website on Monday, Nicklaus said he twice turned down offers to lead the Saudi Arabians’ efforts to start a new golf league that hopes to challenge the PGA Tour.
“I was offered something in excess of $100 million by the Saudis, to do the job probably similar to the one that Greg is doing,” Nicklaus said. “I turned it down. Once verbally, once in writing. I said, ‘Guys, I have to stay with the PGA Tour. I helped start the PGA Tour.’ ”
Nicklaus, 82, was among the players who split from the PGA of America and hired Joe Dey as the tour’s first commissioner in 1968. He won 73 times on tour, including a record 18 major championships.
Despite a handful of players requesting releases to play in the first LIV Golf event — outside London on June 9-11 — Golfweek broke the news last week that the Tour had denied releases for Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood, Robert Garrigus and the rest who made requests.
Tuesday is the deadline players must request waivers to compete in the second Saudi event, scheduled for July 1-3 at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in Portland, Oregon.
Tiger feels stronger
As Tiger Woods prepares to try to win his fifth PGA Championship this week, he said his surgically repaired right leg is stronger than it was at the Masters five weeks ago, when he struggled to climb the sloping hills of Augusta National Golf Club, one of the most demanding walks in golf.
Woods, 46, played his second nine-hole practice round at Southern Hills Country Club on Monday, after playing the front nine on Sunday. His last victory in the PGA Championship occurred at Southern Hills in 2007.
“The more I use it, the more strength it gains,” Woods told reporters Sunday. “Am I ever going to have full mobility? No. Never again. But I’ll be able to get stronger.”
Lefty book hits shelves
Alan Shipnuck’s book — “Phil: The RipRoaring (and unauthorized!) Biography of Golf ’s Most Colorful Superstar” — hits bookstores this week, threatening to overshadow the PGA Championship, an event Mickelson won last year, becoming the oldest winner of a major at 50 years, 11 months and 7 days.
The book starts with Mickelson challenging Shipnuck to a fight under the 18th hole grandstand at the Medinah Country Club outside Chicago after the final round of the 1999 PGA Championship and ends 239 pages later, detailing the ups, downs and controversies of Mickelson’s storied career.
Mickelson won’t be on hand to defend his title, continuing an exile from competitive golf that is either self-imposed, a PGA Tour suspension or a combination of both after his controversial statements surrounding LIV Golf Invitational Series were revealed in book excerpts.