Majors, Monopolies, Megabucks And Donald Trump: Inside The Business Of The New Saudi Golf League – By Justin Birnbaum (Forbes) / Aug 12, 2022
With limited revenue, astronomical signing bonuses and enormous purses, LIV Golf has run up quite a tab. But the real surprise is that Saudi Arabia’s nascent golf super league isn’t just “sports washing.” It could turn a profit—and soon.
As he walks the grounds of Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club, a few miles west of Portland, Oregon, LIV Golf CEO and commissioner Greg Norman is showered with praise. “Great job, Greg!” a fan yells. “My wife will kill me if I don’t get a picture with you,” says another, leaning over the ropes for a selfie with the man who was the world’s No. 1 golfer for 331 weeks. Others simply thank him for bringing elite golf back to Pumpkin Ridge, where in 1996 a 20-year-old Tiger Woods collected his third consecutive U.S. Amateur title days before turning pro.
Here, Norman is a hero. But he’s a villain just about everywhere else. Norman has been taunted by Rory McIlroy, criticized by Woods and blasted by golf analyst Brandel Chamblee throughout LIV Golf’s inaugural 2022 season. He even managed to get himself disinvited from the British Open’s pre-tournament festivities, a huge slap in the face since Norman won the event twice.
“I’m the piñata to a degree, right?” Norman says.
Maybe it’s just the price of disruption. If so, it’s one that Norman, 67, will pay willingly. For nearly 30 years, he’s chased the dream of a breakaway super league in golf, with the best players on the planet competing on a global schedule for enormous prize purses. LIV, which has enticed ten of the world’s top 50 players to defect from the PGA Tour with huge signing bonuses and promises of playing less golf for more money, has made that dream a reality, but not without cost.
