With Australia very much front of mind, Greg Norman gives us a taste of what’s to come with his much-publicised LIV Golf Investments venture.
In late October, Greg Norman was officially named chief executive of LIV Golf Investments, a Saudi Arabian-funded entity that will pump $US200 million into the Asian Tour in the next 10 years. The initial venture is a 10-event series beginning in 2022 but it’s understood the larger mission is to create a global golf circuit that, according to inside sources, could include a team format and private-ownership model, to rival the PGA Tour.
We spoke with the World Golf Hall of Famer to discuss his new position, what he feels is wrong with the current golf model, who might play in these events, the controversial source of all that money and what it means for our battling Australian tour. While Norman was evasive when asked about specifics, he clearly sought to portray the organisation he now leads as a means to growing the game, not as a vehicle for an embattled nation to soften its public image
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AUSTRALIAN GOLF DIGEST: LIV Golf says its aim is to “holistically improve the health of professional golf on a truly global scale”. What is wrong with the current landscape that you seek to improve?
NORMAN: In 40 years as a professional golfer, I’ve seen many parts of the world that have benefitted from golf and its growth and development. So when I became CEO of LIV Golf Investments, I started looking straight away at the Asian Tour, seeing the lack of benefit from the growth of the game of golf there. That was what I zoned in on. That’s the first place I went to play golf as a pro.
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The initial announcement was for 10 events on the Asian Tour, but it seems the vision is for a more robust offering that is a tour of its own. Is the goal here eventually to compete with the PGA Tour for top-level talent?
I just wanted to create a bed where more great players [can develop]… In the ’80s, I went to play the Swedish Open. There was a gentleman, Sven Tumba, an ice hockey player. His dream was to create a platform that goes down to the grassroots to develop a generation of players to get on the PGA and European tours. He did a phenomenal job of transforming golf from non-existent in the country to something where you had Swedish players coming through winning Majors. It’s no different on the Asian Tour. My dream is to do the same with Asia… if we have an opportunity to invest and grow the game of golf through our investment dollars in Asia, God bless us. There’s nothing wrong with that, and no one should decry us for doing that. I just get a little bit miffed as to why people feel so against me wanting to do that through LIV Golf Investments.
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There have been multiple reports out there suggesting that, by doing this, you have officially declared war on the PGA Tour. Is this payback for your world tour concept getting canned all those years ago?
No, it’s not that way at all. I can categorically say this is not a direct war with the PGA Tour. It’s for the betterment of the game of golf, pure and simple. There’s been a lot of commentary about this being all about me getting even with the tour. This idea has been around for a long time. Can you imagine if Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, when they broke away from the PGA of America all those years ago, imagine if they decided to control their own media rights deal – they’d be worth multi billions of dollars today. You could go to that moment in time and say whoever structured that deal and negotiated it for players, really let down the rest of the players for 53 years. What we’re all about is recognising players’ rights as independent contractors to be able to go out and do what they love to do for a living, play the great sport of golf.
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You’ve alluded to this, that you’ve been a proponent of global golf. It’s no secret that you pushed for a global tour in the 1990s. Is the idea, basically, that the PGA Tour is too US-focused and that the best players in the world aren’t playing globally as much as they should?
One hundred percent. Seve [Ballesteros] and I were global players. The two of us, in separate schedules and separate directions, went off and did what we wanted to do as independent contractors. It was the competition that we loved and wanted to be involved with on a global basis. We cherished and relished every tournament we played. That spurred conversations with other players: what would happen if we could do this? In my conversation with Tim Finchem around the Presidents Cup, I went to him because all the international players couldn’t play in a Ryder Cup. And so I wanted to play on a team, so I suggested to Tim Finchem, why don’t the Internationals get to play the winner of the Ryder Cup in the off year? I always wanted to grow the game of golf on a global basis. Always, always.
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The PGA Tour has been clear and firm in its messaging: you’re with us, or you’re with them. Jay Monahan has communicated as much to players, and short of joining another tour, it remains to be seen whether they’d even give tour members releases to play in the 2022 events. What is your response to the PGA Tour’s messaging, and what is the plan if the PGA Tour continues its hardline stance?
I can’t speak on behalf of the tour. I’m a lifetime member of the PGA Tour, I’ve done things I needed to do through the PGA Tour and I will continue to do that because of my QBE Shootout, which is a PGA Tour co-sponsored event. I don’t know what their decisions will be. From our perspective, we’re creating the Asian Tour to be shoulder-to-shoulder in growing and developing the game of golf. I have had numerous conversations with players who have called me up to thank me for what I’m doing in Asia. And those conversations, they’ve said they’re happy that we have a player commission and a CEO that understands what’s going on and our needs. I can’t explain strongly enough how encouraged I am by players, and corporations and additional investors, wanting to come into our platform.
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If Jay picked up the phone and called you tomorrow for a chat, would you answer?
Absolutely, 100 percent. I actually reached out to Jay, through a third party at the Ryder Cup. I even told them, “He’s got my number, tell him to give me a call.” We’re not looking to pick a fight. Nobody wants this thing to go anywhere else other than to grow golf. Other individuals of this organisation have reached out to both the PGA Tour and European Tour.
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The $200 million – what is it going towards? Infrastructure? New tournaments? Staffing? Appearance fees?
It’s a collective yes. We’re going to sit back and look at it. Asia has been suffocated because of COVID. The players are dying to get out there and play. We’re putting together the schedule as we speak. We’re making the opportunity sooner rather than later for these opportunities to get going. The whole world is starting to open up again. The timing is everything, but making sure you do it right is getting with your team and structuring everything correctly. It’s a significant amount of money, and we’re going to be sure we use it the right way.
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Regarding the source of the money here, obviously you considered this before making an extremely important decision for you. Do you have any concerns as to where the money is coming from, and specifically the Saudi Arabian connection?
The PIF (Public Investment Fund), which is our majority investor, they’re obviously a commercial operation. They’re very autonomous. They make investment decisions all around the world. They’ve invested in major US corporations because of commercial reasons. They invested in LIV Golf Investments for a commercial opportunity. They’re passionate about the game of golf. I’ve been going to Saudi Arabia now for three years. I was invited to do a golf-course design project there. Unless you actually go there and see and understand exactly what’s happening there, you [can’t] sit back and make judgemental calls. I made the journey there to look at what was happening in Saudi Arabia before I made any decision on anything because I’m not a person who makes judgement calls. I make sound decisions on sound facts and information that is presented to you. So when the PIF wanted to become a majority investor, I knew what was happening in the country.
What does all this mean for Australia? Are we going to get shown some love when it comes to tournaments?
It would be delinquent of me, as the CEO of LIV Golf investments, not to give Australia an equal opportunity to host an event in some way, shape or form. That’s not to say there aren’t a host of other nations and stakeholders putting their hands up. But there’s huge potential there. I’m obviously very patriotic. My old coach, Charlie Earp, once told me that when I go away my biggest responsibility was the game of golf. My second responsibility was my country and my third was myself. You only have to go back over my history of coming home to support the Aussie tour as much as I possibly could to know how highly I regarded that notion – that’s the responsibility you have as a leading player.
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Australia has been crying out for a PGA Tour tournament for years but the consensus is we simply don’t have the commercial muscle to meet the tour’s financial criteria to stage an event. Does LIV Golf’s significant financial backing effectively solve that problem?
When everybody understands and it all gets unpacked, the answer to that question is yes. The Presidents Cup heading back to Australia and Brisbane getting the 2032 Olympic Games, all these little key ingredients to promote the sport of golf are there and being put into place. But it is my view we need these events happening (in Australia) on a regular basis, not every four years, not even every two years. I’d love to see it every year, and more than once if possible. But, as I’ve said, there are a lot of other stakeholders who all want the same thing and there are only so many opportunities available. Let’s just wait and see.
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You’ve referenced Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket during your pitch to the public. Care to elaborate?
What Kerry did for cricket was just amazing. He gave players more opportunities to play and make money. What happened? The truest form of the game – Test cricket – held its values and remained the most sought-after format players wanted to play in. All Kerry did was enlarge the sandbox and gave the sport better opportunities. When you see that, in its most simplistic form, that’s what should and will happen with golf – we’ll give these guys a bigger sandbox they can all play in.
There were initially reports of a league that sought to incorporate a team concept in events with limited fields. As far as format goes, are these 10 tournaments in 2022
going to be traditional 72-hole strokeplay events?
The 10 premier series events will be a 72-hole format with USGA and R&A rules.
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One of the things that seems to be most appealing to players about your plans is the prospect of guaranteed money. We saw the PGA Tour respond to this with the Player Impact Program, a way to compensate stars for something other than their on-course performance. Is the idea to provide some sort of contract to these players for a certain amount of money or will it come through appearance fees?
From the Asian Tour perspective, I can only talk about what happened with me over the past 40 years. Every time I went to play somewhere around the world, I got an appearance fee because I’m an independent contractor. You get paid appearance fees for what reason? You can put bums on seats, you can increase TV ratings, and if you can do that you bring in hospitality and sponsorship dollars. It’s a win-win for everybody.
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What’s your message to professional golfers back home in Australia who are reading and hearing about all these tours and don’t really know what pathways
are going to be open to them
moving forward?
Keep your eyes wide open and listen and read. Make your calculation and decisions on what you know to be fact. Don’t be misguided by misinformed reports or opinions. This whole project is set up for these exact players. The southern hemisphere has been largely forgotten over the years. We’re going to give players the opportunity to shoot for a goal and say, “I want to be there. I want to be involved in that.” It isn’t going to happen overnight. It’s taken a monument effort to get where we are today. Hundreds of people have been working around the clock, and millions of dollars have been spent for the betterment of golf. I can’t wait to write a book about this whole process one day. It’s an incredible, incredible story. It goes from the heart of multiple different cultures and speaks loudly and proudly of the power of golf diplomacy.
