Greg Norman blasts PGA Tour for criticising Saudi-backed LIV series
- Joe Hewlett
- 21 June 2022
Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson are the two standout golfers to have joined the breakaway series under Norman.
Greg Norman has hit back at the likes of Rory McIlroy and reminded the PGA Tour of their association with Saudi Arabia.
LIV Golf is funded by the Public Investment Firm (PIF) and the first series will include eight tournaments. The total prize money for the tournament is $225m.
While McIlroy and others, including Tiger Woods, have refused to even consider a switch, others have done and there are now 42 players competing in the event.
Portland and Bedminster - the latter being the course of Donald Trump - will be the second and third tournaments in America, following on from London.
Speaking about the backlash LIV Golf has received, Norman hit back and said: "Look, if they want to look at it in prism, then why does the PGA Tour have 23 sponsors within the PGA Tour doing 40-plus billion dollars worth of business with Saudi Arabia?
"Why is it OK for the sponsors? Why is it OK that there's a Saudi sponsor, Aramco, the largest sponsor of women's golf in the world? Why is it OK for them? Why is it not OK for these players?
"Will (PGA Tour commissioner) Jay Monahan go to each and every one of those CEOs of the 23 companies that are investing into Saudi Arabia and suspend them and ban them? The hypocrisy in all this, it's so loud. It's deafening."
"The European PGA Tour (has) a golf tournament, the Saudi International, that's still in existence since 2019," Norman added.
"And during that Saudi International, there were PGA Tour players who were given rights and waivers to go play there. So to me, if golf is good for the world, golf is good for Saudi, and you're seeing that growth internally; it's extremely impressive."
