Greg Norman: Profitable Saudi-backed golf league is ‘new alternative’ for gamers, says CEO

Progress

On Wednesday, former world No. 1 Norman introduced the formation of the brand new team-based, skilled golf league.

The information launch asserting the sequence listed the occasions going down in seven cities world wide: London; Portland, Oregon; Bedminster, New Jersey; Boston; Chicago; Bangkok; and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The eighth occasion — a staff championship — doesn’t have a venue listed.

5 occasions happen after the top of the PGA Tour season, however three of these happen concurrently occasions on the DP World Tour.

The PIF is a sovereign wealth fund chaired by Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and the person who a US intelligence report named as liable for approving the operation that led to the 2018 homicide of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Bin Salman has denied involvement in Khashoggi’s homicide.

The supply of the cash behind the brand new league has brought about golf commentators to query whether or not it’s the finest thought for the game to search out funding from a supply with a questionable human rights document.

However when pressed on the nation’s human rights document, Norman pointed to all the nice work Saudi Arabia has carried out to develop golf.

“We’re right here to develop the sport of golf. Cash from Saudi Arabia has gone into the sport of golf and since 2019, Saudi Arabia has placed on the Saudi Worldwide,” the 67-year-old stated.

“That was co-sanctioned by the European Tour, now the DP World Tour. So the cash’s been there and the opposite excursions have co-sanctioned these tournaments by Saudi cash. Golf is nice for the world and golf is nice for Saudi Arabia too. We have seen it.

“Saudi Arabia has invested some huge cash into girls’s golf. They’re the biggest investor in girls’s golf right now. So once you have a look at all of the info sitting on the market, sure, our investor is Saudi cash. I am happy with that as a result of, like I stated, golf is nice for the world and we’re simply going to develop the sport of golf on a worldwide foundation.”

Opposition

Rumors of the brand new enterprise have sparked hypothesis about which golfers will play on it.

Information that the big-money Saudi-league had approached a few of the largest names in golf — together with Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau — to be its poster boys brought about gamers to publicly distance themselves from the so-called “Tremendous Golf League,” with Johnson, DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy all reiterating their dedication to the PGA Tour.

Though it’s unclear which golfers will compete within the tournaments on the time of writing — Norman stated that “no person’s signed up as a result of it is an invitational and the invitations have not been despatched out but” — Norman does not suppose that they’re going to have any bother attracting the most important names.

“We’re not going to have an issue attending to gamers,” he stated. “I wager you we do not have a scarcity of gamers, to let you know the reality.

“It is an invite and the invites will probably be going out and we’ll gladly make an announcement about who’s taking part in within the close to future as we lead as much as it. And as I stated to the gamers, in the event you’re sitting on the market and also you’re liking what you are seeing, go apply for a launch.

“From the European Tour, from the PGA Tour or whoever it’s, go apply for a launch. You’ve three releases, you’ve gotten the suitable to go play beneath their guidelines and laws right now, go do it and go play.

“So you’ve got bought three out of the eight, and in the event you solely play three then you definitely won’t get the person world championship alternative for the highest three particular person gamers which is $30 million on the finish of the yr after seven occasions. So the extra you play, the extra probability you’ve gotten of catching that pool, no totally different to what the FedEx is for the gamers right now.”

The at present established golf excursions — primarily the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour — have expressed their opposition to the brand new enterprise.

Norman instructed CNN’s Davies that they’ve needed to battle “white noise” which has been “managed by different entities” to make strides in the direction of getting off the bottom.

And the 20-time PGA Tour winner questioned what the PGA Tour has to concern from the brand new league.

“There have been a whole lot of obstacles put in our path, there isn’t any query about it. The PGA Tour have fallen nice, large redwood timber throughout our highway however we have figured it out,” he stated.

“We’re right here for the long-term, I need to give the chance for gamers to have a greater probability and extra probability, different possibilities to go on the market as impartial contractors and go play golf. Let me ask you that query: what’s improper with that? And from the PGA Tour’s standpoint, what are they afraid of, fairly truthfully, with us giving the chance for impartial contractors to exit and play for extra golf?

“We’re 100% additive to the sport of golf. We simply need to make the sport of golf larger and higher, have much more evolution to the sport of golf, improve the leisure aspect of issues, for the followers, for the gamers, for the stakeholders, everyone. In order the gamers perceive it now, it is a completely totally different narrative.”