LPGA Tour left out of LIV deal, but some women would listen

Greg Norman tantalized the best women golfers in the world with a big-bucks flicker of hope that, they too — possibly anyone from a former world No. 1 like Nelly Korda to Stanford phenom Rose Zhang — could eventually revel in the spoils offered by Saudi-backed LIV Golf.

Norman, the commissioner of LIV Golf, insisted in April the upstart golf league propped by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund would consider adding a women's tour.

“I have personally had discussions with individual LPGA Tour players, Ladies European Tour. They love what our product is showcasing,” Norman said. “They ask all the time, `How can we get involved?' We'd love to see a LIV ladies series.”

Norman, who also boasted of more major men's players to join the fledging series that failed to materialize, never named any women he met with to discuss LIV. But if any kind of offer ever comes that could inject a financial boon to the tour, the LPGA would at least be willing to listen, despite the Saudi's troubling history when it comes to women's rights.

Some women on the LPGA Tour currently play on the Ladies European Tour — which does receive Saudi funding — but there is not the disdain and animosity between LET and the LPGA that had existed between the PGA and LIV Golf.

The PGA Tour partnership with Saudi Arabia's enormous wealth fund essentially left out the LPGA in the foreseeable future of any chance of at least considering the idea to defect and join a rival league that paid signing bonuses of $100 million or more to poach players from the PGA Tour.

While bonuses likely never would have soared that high — again, there was never any firm plan a women's version of LIV was on the table — history showed the Saudi money surely would have been considerably more massive than any payout offered by the LPGA Tour.

“It's definitely something I would look at,” 2010 U.S. Women's Open champion Paula Creamer said Thursday. “I don't know all the details about that. You have to weigh your options with everything these days.”

PGA players were blindsided this week by the unfathomable announcement. The LPGA field was even more unsure how the deal could affect them, if at all.

“Who knows what the next curve ball is,” American golfer Amy Olson said.