Norman defined that he believes that for the “journeymen” of golf, it may be a game-changing competitors.
“If No. 283 (ranked participant on this planet), who simply goes round and simply performs by means of Asia, if he got here and received $10-15 million, how nice would that be for him, his household, the sport of golf to really attain out and provides a chance for someone, who’s in all probability a journeyman on some tour on the market, to vary their lives?” Norman advised Davies.
Development
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 happening in seven cities around the globe: 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 tip of the PGA Tour season, however three of these happen similtaneously 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 chargeable 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 greatest thought for the game to seek out funding from a supply with a questionable human rights report.
However when pressed on the nation’s human rights report, Norman pointed to all the great work Saudi Arabia has performed 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 mentioned.
“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 sweet for the world and golf is sweet for Saudi Arabia too. We have seen it.
“Saudi Arabia has invested some huge cash into girls’s golf. They’re the most important investor in girls’s golf in the present day. So if you take a look at all of the information sitting on the market, sure, our investor is Saudi cash. I am pleased with that as a result of, like I mentioned, golf is sweet 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 greatest 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 mentioned that “no one’s signed up as a result of it is an invitational and the invitations have not been despatched out but” — Norman would not suppose that they will have any bother attracting the most important names.
“We’re not going to have an issue attending to gamers,” he mentioned. “I wager you we do not have a scarcity of gamers, to let you know the reality.
“It is an invite and the invites shall be going out and we’ll gladly make an announcement about who’s enjoying within the close to future as we lead as much as it. And as I mentioned to the gamers, when 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 got three releases, you may have the precise to go play below their guidelines and laws in the present day, go do it and go play.
“So you have obtained three out of the eight, and when 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 likelihood you may have of catching that pool, no completely different to what the FedEx is for the gamers in the present day.”
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 advised 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 quite a lot of obstacles put in our path, there is not any query about it. The PGA Tour have fallen nice, large redwood bushes throughout our street however we have figured it out,” he mentioned.
“We’re right here for the long-term, I need to make it possible for gamers to have a greater likelihood and extra likelihood, different probabilities to go on the market as impartial contractors and go play golf. Let me ask you that query: what’s flawed 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 added 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 completely different narrative.”
