Tag: Greg Norman

Lynch: As Greg Norman’s clown show continues, his Saudi bosses can’t be laughing

The Saudi project is piloted by a man with more hot air than the Hindenburg, and seems destined for the same fate.

It’s performance review season in corporate America, when employees are either congratulated on jobs well done or held to account for shortcomings. If Greg Norman were disposed toward self-reflection (stay with me), he might feel relief that his Saudi-backed outfit isn’t held to such conventional standards on performance, or for that matter on commercial viability, ROI or morality.

Norman was announced as the CEO of LIV Golf in October and has beclowned himself with his every public utterance since, cementing a reputation that will encompass not only his inability to finish big tournaments but his ineptitude in starting them too. What was promised as a seismic shake-up of global golf is looking more like a bonanza for washed-up also-rans. Consider what Norman has presided over since the Saudi ambitions in golf came into focus and all you’ll find is backtracking.

Those 12-18 events they touted? Not happening.

The league format? Same.

An elite team concept? Nope.

The best golfers in world? Let’s hear it for Robert Garrigus.

A fresh, engaging product for fans? See above.

More: First PGA Tour player seeks permission to play Saudi tournament

What’s left is eight lucrative tournaments that will showcase aging veterans who can no longer compete where it matters, career journeymen whose own caddies might struggle to identify them in a line-up, and amateurs, whose inclusion was presented as a “grow the game” gesture rather than the act of desperation it is. (Next stop: PGA Tour Champions!) In short, Norman is serving a fetid platter of horseshit and claiming it’s boeuf bourguignon.

The only entertainment guaranteed in this venture is an overdue comeuppance for the Great White Pilot Fish, whose tenure began with an interview in which he marveled at the sight of women dining in Saudi restaurants sans burkas. Later, he addressed the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. “What happened to Khashoggi was reprehensible. There’s not a person on this planet who would not agree with me,” he said, perhaps forgetting that the Crown Prince who ordered Khashoggi’s dismemberment by bonesaw—the same man who pays Norman—might not agree with him. That he followed this declaration with “But…” is damning enough without it being necessary to recount the chicken-hearted prevarications he duly offered.

Norman has also shown the familiar maladroit touch with Augusta National that defined his playing career there. “We respect the Masters and we thought we’d let it go off before our announcements,” he said last week.

“…we thought we’d let it go off…”

Oh, to have been Fred Ridley’s watchful manservant when he read that over his morning coffee.

Norman’s latest performance pratfall is peddling a claim that he could make a swansong appearance at the 150th Open Championship in St. Andrews in July, not as a ceremonial figure but as a competitor. There’s a better chance we’ll see Old Tom Morris tee it up for old time’s sake.

The R&A exempts past champions into the Open until age 60. Norman is 67, hasn’t competed in a major in 13 years, or in any serious tournament in a decade. He reportedly admitted that he won’t enter qualifying but will instead ask for a special invitation, which is at least in keeping with his current belief that “elite” fields are filled with antiquated has-beens. The R&A’s response carried the faint whiff of a spokesperson irked at having had to interrupt their weekend to slap down the narcissistic delusion of a serial social media flasher: “The entry terms and conditions for The Open stipulate that a champion must be aged 60 or under or have won the championship in the previous 10 years to be exempt from qualifying. That remains the case for the 150th Open and we have no plans for any additional exemptions.”

Norman’s disregard for established rules and norms might endear him to his employers, but even the Saudis must now be weary of their water carrier’s unquenchable thirst for publicity, his intemperate and ill-considered public comments, his lack of peripheral vision, his unpopularity in the locker room and his stupefying ability to snatch defeat when victory seemed not only possible but likely. Norman’s temperament was often a liability on the closing stretch of majors, but his bosses will know that it’s an encumbrance even before they can get a ball in the air.

Petulance underpins Norman’s St. Andrews fantasy. Golf’s governing bodies are closing ranks against his Saudi “sportswashing” effort—and behind the PGA and DP World tours— in a manner that is subtle but unmistakable. The R&A previously awarded a spot in the Open to the Asian Tour’s leading money winner but ceased doing so when the Saudis recently bought into that circuit. Augusta National invites all former major champions to the Masters as a courtesy, but somehow lost Norman’s address in 2022. Players being courted by the Saudis will have noticed this chill wind, and only those who know they can’t factor in tournaments that matter will shrug it off.

Despite all the bluster and promises of riches, the Saudis must finally understand their project is piloted by a man more inflated with hot air than the Hindenburg, and seems destined for the same fate, even as he artlessly tries to coax gullible passengers aboard. Someone with a larger-than-life bust of himself in his garden is obviously immune to embarrassment. The people who entrusted him with their billion-dollar business, not so much.

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Bohannan: Greg Norman, Saudi Arabia-backed golf tour still stirring up issues despite big players saying no

The rumor mill still has Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter involved with the LIV.

You would think by now that the idea of the LIV, the Saudi Arabia-backed golf league that wants to rival the PGA Tour, would have slipped quietly away. The biggest names in golf have turned their backs on the idea, saying they will stay with the profitable PGA Tour. And one of golf’s biggest names and one of its best all-time players, Phil Mickelson, is in a kind of self-exile from the game at the moment over why and how he supported the idea of the LIV.

But with all of that weighing against the LIV and its commissioner Greg Norman, the LIV still manages to make some news. This week the news is a batch of names who are recognizable but far from the elite of the tour that the LIV pursued earlier in the year.

The rumor mill still has European stars Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter involved with the LIV. The other names aren’t necessarily new, but they are intriguing. Two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson is among those names, and so are Kevin Na and Jason Kokrak.

In what seemed like a response to the rumors, Watson posted his summer schedule on Twitter, without mentioning the LIV and without listing any of the LIV tournaments on his agenda.

Was that just a way to turn off the rumors, or had Watson been persuaded to change his mind because of backlash to even the rumor of him signing with the LIV? Several players seemed to pledge their support to the PGA Tour in February after Phil Mickelson’s comments on the league were leaked and Mickelson was hit with a huge backlash.

Watson’s name is particularly interesting because he has embraced Augusta National, home of the Masters, by not only playing in the tournament as a past champion but showing up at the pre-tournament Drive, Chip and Putt event each year.

If you believe Norman, still the face of the LIV, he was left off the invitation list to the Masters this year he believes because of his backing of the LIV. Would Watson want to risk that in his career?

PNC Championship 2020
Greg Norman at the 2020 PNC Championship in Orlando. (Photo: Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press)

It’s probably not fair to say the other names wouldn’t particularly be missed if they stopped playing PGA Tour events, because most players have their fans who love to see them play. But Na and Kokrak are far from Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson, some of the names the LIV expressed interest in early in the planning stages. McIlroy never supported the LIV, Johnson was among those saying no as recently as February and Tiger Woods has given the LIV concept a flat-out no.

The league that won’t go away

So why does the LIV live on? Part of it is the PGA Tour has been instituting many changes in the last year, and some of them seem to be direct responses to the threat of the LIV. Those changes include increased purses at most tournaments, the institution of a Players Impact Program that gives bonuses to important and popular players and even talk of a new Fall Series team concept, kind of along the lines of what the LIV has proposed.

The other reason the LIV lingers on is Norman himself. For now at least, Norman has refused to accept defeat, even in the face of the best and biggest names in the game giving the LIV the cold shoulder. In a series of interviews this week, Norman doubled down on his belief that the PGA Tour can not ban players from its tournaments for signing up with the LIV, and that he believes the LIV will play on no matter who is in the field. He added that better players will eventually want to play for the LIV’s money, knowing they can beat the golfers signed up for the league.

The PGA Tour and the status quo in golf can feel good about the Masters last week, the cementing of world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler with a Masters victory and the idea that Tiger Woods remains the biggest and most appealing attraction in golf. The LIV wasn’t even an afterthought at Augusta National.

Will there be a death blow for the LIV in the coming weeks? Norman certainly seems intent on keeping the league around, even at the cost of careers and legacies.

Larry Bohannan is the golf writer for the Palm Springs (Calif.) Desert Sun, part of the USA Today Network. He can be reached at larry.bohannan@desertsun.com or (760) 778-4633. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @larry_bohannan. Support Local journalism. Subscribe to The Desert Sun.

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Lynch: Greg Norman’s Saudi schedule may finally force shameless golfers from the shadows

There are office buildings full of lawyers salivating at the billable years ahead.

The true scale of a huckster’s toxicity is never apparent in the cost to his reputation—by definition, he has little to defend—but rather in how easily he imperils the honor of anyone who associates with him. After two years of speculation and rumor-mongering, the day is near when we’ll finally learn who among the world’s best golfers is willing to sacrifice his standing on Greg Norman’s amoral altar.

Since he is clearly bereft of shame, let’s assume it was out of respect that Norman waited three days after Saudi Arabia executed 81 men for such crimes as “deviant beliefs” to unveil a schedule for LIV Golf Invitational, a tournament series financed by that same regime solely for the purpose of sportswashing things like summary mass executions at home and war crimes abroad.

In multiple media interviews—many of which verged on ego-stroking panegyrics—Norman continued to reveal himself to be a craven apologist for abusers.

“I’m not getting into this political dialogue,” he told Gary Williams, who was among the few who pushed the great white pilot fish on human rights issues during his 5 Clubs podcast. “I’m staying focused on what I’m doing and growing the game of golf … I’m not even going to go down that path of trying to get into a political discussion about it.”

Imagine a housekeeper cleaning a hotel room that resembles a slaughterhouse without concern for how it reached that state. Norman may think heads rolling in the squares of Riyadh or a consulate in Istanbul are above his pay grade, but the stain of his association is undeniable and indelible. And he’s eager for other prominent players to assume the same mark.

June 9-11 in London will see the first event in the LIV Golf Invitational (decide for yourself if the name is a Roman numerical reference to its 54-hole formats or a ghoulish joke about what the regime doesn’t permit critics to do). The second tournament is planned for July 1-3 at Oregon’s Pumpkin Ridge, whose members were simultaneously hit with a dues increase to upgrade facilities and news that they’ve been conscripted into a sportswashing exercise.

Policy requires PGA Tour members to obtain permission to compete in events staged by other tours. Releases are routinely granted for those who wish to wheel a barrow of appearance cash home from Asia, Europe and the Middle East, but there are established parameters. The PGA Tour has never issued a waiver for its members to play a tournament held in the U.S. against its own schedule, and there’s no reason to think commissioner Jay Monahan will rescind that policy for Norman’s bonesaw invitationals.

The denial of waivers may trigger litigation that has been inevitable from the outset. In anti-trust law, the action could have two fronts: whether the PGA Tour is erecting unfair barriers to prevent a competitor from entering the market, and whether the Tour can stop independent contractors (the players) from working for another entity.

In anti-trust, public language matters. This is why Norman’s March 15 letter to players announcing the series and inviting their participation likely wasn’t authored by Norman. The intemperate screed he sent Monahan last month displayed an intellect so shallow it ought to have been scrawled in crayon. This letter was carefully crafted, stating that LIV Golf would complement the existing ecosystem while offering fans an enhanced product. The wording is noteworthy.

Anti-trust law centers on what is best for the consumer, with three lynchpins of greater options, higher quality and lower costs. It’s easy to laugh off the letter describing the Saudi venture as a “start-up,” as though it’s a scrappy enterprise aiming for a conventional return on investment, but that framing is intended to suggest a fledgling outfit being stymied by Monahan’s monolith.

It’s debatable if LIV Golf can claim to provide consumers with a better product given that it plans fewer events, fewer players, fewer holes and fewer viewing opportunities. But even if the PGA Tour is found guilty of anti-trust violations, the Saudis would have to prove harm inflicted, which history shows is no easy task.

In the 1980s, the USFL filed suit accusing the NFL of anti-trust violations somewhat similar to what LIV Golf might allege against the PGA Tour. The USFL won but was awarded damages of just $1. By the time the NFL cut a check, the USFL was long shuttered. The award was so paltry because the jury found that the USFL’s inept mismanagement contributed greatly to its own failure. It would require resourceful counsel to defend the artless bungling that has defined the Saudi project over the years. Norman might want to familiarize himself with the ‘victory’ of King Pyrrhus in the Battle of Asculum.

Understandably, public interest will center on what player(s) will step forward to be the face(s) of a Saudi-funded lawsuit over their freedom to play where they wish. That too will be drawn-out and complex. Monahan is not telling Tour members they can’t play for the Saudis; he’s telling them they can’t play for the Saudis and continue to play on the PGA Tour at the same time. To do that, he needs “pro-competitive justification” for placing restraints on independent contractors. And an argument for that exists.

Counsel for the PGA Tour could argue a need to protect its branding by avoiding confusion about who plays on what circuit, or a necessity to protect its investments in players—their skills, their health, their potential stresses from competing on multiple circuits—to best deliver its product, which is competitive golf at an elite level. In short, that the PGA Tour’s ability to continue delivering a product that consumers recognize as theirs requires an aligned commitment from players. Those are reasonable legal stances to take, albeit positions poorly messaged by the Tour, which has allowed a narrative to take root about threats of lifetime bans, which only plays into Saudi claims of unfair barriers.

As hesitant as players must be to become the public faces of a Saudi hijacking of professional golf, there are office buildings full of lawyers salivating at the billable years ahead. Any player who does step up to demand the right to play with the Saudis and the PGA Tour simultaneously faces a long and lonely road as public sentiment, sponsors and peers turn against them, as Phil Mickelson can attest. PGA Tour pros often peddle a sentimental cliché about how they play the game reflects their integrity. There’s something to that. But in this particular time, it’s no less testimony to a man’s character for whom he plays the game.

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Greg Norman, Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf aiming for $500 million for global media rights, according to a report

The report says that LIV claims to have a “short list” including three “interesting names.”

We don’t yet know who will actually compete in the LIV Golf Invitational Series but we have learned the locations of the eight-event schedule for 2022.

Now there’s word that the rival start-up is talking with media companies about locking in television and streaming rights. In a report by Front Office Sports, the circuit, headed up by Greg Norman, is hoping to land $500 million for its global media rights.

The report is short on specifics as to who might actually sign on with the series, saying that LIV claims to have a “short list” including three “interesting names.”

“Streaming platforms, particularly the Netflixes, the Amazons, the Apples, are truly global. That’s one path we could pursue,” said Sean Bratches, a former ESPN executive and LIV Golf’s chief commercial officer.

Bratches also said the group may pursue a bidding process for each country, claiming there is “interest across the board.”

In March, the PGA Tour agreed to nine-year extensions to re-up with current media partners CBS, NBC and ESPN worth $7 billion. That deal runs from 2022 through 2030.

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From Saudi Arabia to Portland, get to know the courses hosting the LIV Golf Invitational Series in 2022

Greg Norman’s Saudi Arabia-backed 2022 LIV Golf Invitational Series will start June 2022.

After countless rumors and speculation, we’re one step closer to a golf league rivaling the PGA Tour.

Greg Norman, the CEO and commissioner of LIV Golf Investments, announced on Wednesday the plans for the LIV Golf Invitational Series, a eight-event circuit starting in June that boasts $255 million in prize money. The events will feature 48 players and 12 four-man teams. They will be 54 holes with no cuts and shotgun starts.

The series will begin at Centurion Golf Club in London and end at a yet-to-be-determined location with a lucrative Team Championship. Four of the events will be held in the United States, with the others in Thailand, Saudi Arabia and London.

Get to know more about the courses hosting LIV Golf Invitational Series events.

More: Premier Golf League plan to partner with PGA Tour features massive paydays, ownership stakes for tour members

‘We’re ready to go and grow:’ Greg Norman says invitations to play in Saudi Arabia-backed league will be sent soon

“We’re staunch believers in where we can take this game.”

Greg Norman said he’s more confident today about the future of LIV Golf Investments and its ambitious model to expand the game’s interests and reach around the world than he was when he was named CEO of the Saudi Arabia-backed company in October.

“I’m more excited now than I’ve ever been,” Norman said in a phone call with Golfweek on Wednesday. “Today was Day 1. We’re a startup. We’re in for the long haul. We’re not going away.

“We’re ready to go and grow.”

Norman was still reveling despite the skies opening up late in the afternoon over West Palm Beach, Florida. Earlier in the day, he announced the June launch of the eight-event LIV Golf Invitational, which will consist of individual and team play with prize money reaching $255 million. The first event will be played June 9-11 at Centurion Golf Club in London; it will have a $20 million purse with an additional $5 million split among the top three teams.

After the first seven events are played, the top three in the individual format will split $30 million. The final event October 28-30 at a site yet to be determined will be a team championship with $50 million in prize money.

Four sites in the U.S. will host tournaments, including Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey.

LIV Golf Investments, which has already invested $300 million over 10 years on the Asian Tour, is providing more than $400 million to launch the series. The events will feature 48 players and 12 four-man teams. They will be 54 holes with no cut and shotgun starts. Contrary of earlier reports, players will not have to sign on to play in all eight events. A draft before each of the first seven events will determine teams.

“We finally got to let the world know exactly who we are,” said Norman, 66, who also is the commissioner of the circuit. “And all this white noise and speculation out there now goes away, right? Because now we can put it out there in the public eye. Our investors are very, very excited. Everyone on our team, which is close to 50 deep in personnel on our payroll, is so pumped up. We finally get our chance to shine.”

Norman, who sent letters Tuesday night to 250 players who play on various tours around the world, said invitations to play in the league will be sent out shortly.

“They will have an opportunity to play somewhere else,” said Norman, a two-time major champion and member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. The Australian has long held that players are independent contractors and should be allowed to compete anywhere at any time. In 1993-1994, the PGA Tour squashed his attempt to start a world golf tour.

“They can still play the PGA Tour, they can still play the European tour, they can still play wherever they want,” Norman said. “We’re just giving them another opportunity to increase their market value.”

Among those who will get invited is Phil Mickelson. The member of the World Golf Hall of Fame and six-time major champion hasn’t played on the PGA Tour since the Farmers Insurance Open in January. He is taking time away from the game after receiving a tremendous amount of blowback for derogatory remarks made to Golf Digest and Fire Pit Collective; he called out the PGA Tour for its “obnoxious greed,” and said he would use the rival league backed by Saudi Arabia’s enormous financial resources as leverage against the PGA Tour despite the country’s repressive regime and its long history of human rights abuses.

“Phil said what he thinks he had to say, and I feel sad for Phil, to be honest with you, about those comments,” Norman said. “But I’m letting him have his own space. I’m not going to pick up the phone and talk to him about it. I respect somebody’s thought process if they want to get away from things and sort themselves out.

“I will say this as a player. We’ve all made mistakes. We’ve all three-putted to lose a tournament, we’ve all double-bogeyed to lose a tournament, we’ve all said things and not only just as a player, but people in life in general, that we regret. And I’m sure Phil does regret it. He apologized.

“But I will say this: there will always be a door open for Phil, who has been incredible for what he’s done for the game. He’s done an incredible amount on the golf course, he has an incredible fan base, he’s been great with charities.

“He will be back.”

Captain Greg Norman of the International Team shakes hands with Phil Mickelson of the USA Team on the first tee during the Day One Foursome Matches of The Presidents Cup at Harding Park Golf Course on October 8, 2009, in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

Wednesday was a big day for Norman after a recent rough patch where many of the game’s biggest names, including Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Collin Morikawa, and Brooks Koepka publicly – and in some cases, pointedly – rejected the league backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and one that would be a rival of the PGA Tour.

“I didn’t take any body blows from the players, because I respect the players and their thought processes and what they do,” Norman said. “The media, different story. So there’s a lot of white noise out there.

“I’ve taken some body blows from the media anyway, so I’ve got a pretty thick skin. And in my career, I took those body blows and I kept on going because I love the game of golf. And a lot of what golf can give not only for individuals as players, but for fans and stakeholders and countries.

“It’s my passion for the game that keeps me going.”

In addition to player rejections, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has warned players they could face banishment from the PGA Tour if they joined the new league. At last week’s Players Championship, Monahan said he is confident in his ability to administer the rules and regulations of the PGA Tour; a member, who must play a minimum of 15 Tour events per year, needs to seek releases to compete in “conflicting” tournaments such as the events in the LIV Golf Invitational.

Norman believes the leagues can co-exist despite Monahan’s declaration.

“I anticipated and understood what the moves would be; they put a big redwood tree right on our path,” Norman said. “But you know what, because of the beliefs of the people who are on board with this model, we worked our way around.

“We’re staunch believers in where we can take this game.”

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Greg Norman announces Saudi Arabia-backed 2022 LIV Golf Invitational Series will start in June, feature $255 million in prize money

“Our events are truly additive to the world of golf,” Norman said.

Last month, Rory McIlroy was one of many of the game’s biggest stars who pledged their allegiance to the PGA Tour flag and waved away playing in a proposed golf league driven by Greg Norman and backed by Saudi Arabia.

“It’s dead in the water, in my opinion,” McIlroy said.

Not so fast.

Norman, aka the Great White Shark, reemerged Tuesday by sending a letter to players stating the league backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund was not on its last breath. On Wednesday, Norman, the CEO and commissioner of LIV Golf Investments, which is funded by the Saudis, announced the league that would rival the PGA Tour has serious teeth.

Starting in June, the LIV Golf Invitational Series will begin and feature eight events and consist of individual and team play with prize money reaching $255 million. The first event will be played June 9-11 at Centurion Golf Club in London; the first seven events will have $20 million purses with an additional $5 million split among the top three teams each week.

After the first seven events are played, the top three in the individual format will split $30 million. The final event, Oct. 28-30 at a site yet to be determined, will be a team championship with $50 million in prize money.

In the U.S., Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in Portland, Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey, The International in Boston and Rich Harvest Farms north of Chicago will host events.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has said any players joining the league would face banishment from the PGA Tour. Norman replied in a letter the PGA Tour cannot ban players. Litigation seems likely in the future.

More: Premier Golf League plan to partner with PGA Tour features massive paydays, ownership stakes for tour members

LIV Golf Investments, which has already invested $300 million over 10 years on the Asian Tour, is providing more than $400 million to launch the series.

The events will feature 48 players and 12 four-man teams. They will be 54 holes with no cut and shotgun starts.

“I want golf to grow, players to have additional opportunities, and fans to have more fun,” Norman said in a release. “My mission is to help the game reach its full potential and we know the role of golf as an entertainment product is critical to overall participation in the sport.

“In many ways, we are a start-up. We have a long-term vision and aim to grow. I believe we have a very bright and exciting future.”

The schedule will not compete with the four major championships or heritage events. Each event will have teams comprised of different players determined by a draft the week of the event.

“Our events are truly additive to the world of golf,” Norman said. “We have done our best to create a schedule that allows players to play elsewhere, while still participating in our events. I believe players will increasingly make progress in achieving their right to play where they want. We will help in any way possible and will provide golfers with opportunities to achieve their full potential.”

Said Joel Schuchmann, senior vice president of Communications for the PGA Tour: “As we have stated repeatedly in recent weeks, the PGA Tour has moved on.”

LIV Golf Invitational 2022 schedule

Date Location
June 9-11 Centurion Golf Club – London
July 1-3 Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club – Portland
July 29-31 Trump National Golf Club Bedminster – New Jersey
Sept. 2-4 The International – Boston
Sept. 16-18 Rich Harvest Farms – Chicago
Oct. 7-9 Stonehill – Bangkok
Oct. 14-16 Royal Greens Golf Club – Jeddah
Oct. 28-30 Team Championship – TBD

Another league is circling in the waters, too. The Fire Pit Collective was the first to report that the Premier Golf League has divulged plans to the PGA Tour and certain players including McIlroy for a series of events that would partner with various tours. The format consists of 18 events, with 12 teams of four players competing in team and individual championships that run simultaneously throughout the season. Purses would be worth $20 million, with an additional $1 million going to the winners of the team event. A winner-take-all prize of $20 million is also up for grabs to the winner of a season-ending team event.

The PGL also plans to allocate 100 million shares to PGA Tour, Korn Ferry Tour and DP World Tour players in a tiered system.

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In letter to players, Greg Norman says Saudi Arabia-backed league will launch, with details of first events coming Wednesday

In a letter obtained by Golfweek, Greg Norman said the rival Saudi Arabia-backed golf league still has teeth.

Greg Norman is not going away.

In a letter he sent Tuesday to players and obtained by Golfweek, the Great White Shark said the rival Saudi Arabia-backed golf league that would rival the PGA Tour still has teeth and will launch soon, and information of the proposed league’s first events will be announced Wednesday,

S.I.com/Morning Read was the first to report the news.

Despite recent, overwhelming dismissal of the league by many of the game’s top players, including Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele and Jordan Spieth, Norman, the CEO and commissioner of LIV Golf Investments, said “we will continue to drive this vision forward. We will not stop. We believe in our mission and will announce information about our first events tomorrow.”

LIV Golf Investments, backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, has already committed $300 million over 10 years to the Asian Tour. Although lacking in detail, LIV Golf Investments also has proposed a Super Golf League that would consist of 14 events with 48-player fields featuring both individual and team play.

The events would be 54 holes with no cut. Each would have a $20 million purse.

An ownership component for players with eight-figure signing bonuses also has been reported.

Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau have been rumored to be joining the league. Johnson and DeChambeau, however, recently have said they are with the PGA Tour. Mickelson, who hasn’t played since the Farmers Insurance Open, said he needed time away from the game after derogatory remarks he made in November about the repressive Saudi Arabia regime and the PGA Tour were made public by Alan Shipnuck of the Firepit Collective and author of the soon-to-be-released “Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar.”

Despite the player rejections and PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan saying last week at The Players Championship that the Tour is moving on, Norman remains undeterred. Monahan has told players if they join the rival league, they could lose PGA Tour membership.

“We consider ourselves a start-up,” Norman wrote. “We may start with a modest number of players, but we won’t stay that way for long. I fully understand some players may choose not to play with us right away. But after we get going, I believe many of those who aren’t with us now will be with us later. I want to thank you for your patience, but know, it will be worth your while.

“While we respect that some of you may have concerns, know that we will work tirelessly with you to alleviate them. Our goal always will be to let you focus on your playing performance, while benefitting from new opportunities, whenever you are ready for them.”

Norman also wrote that the proposed Super Golf League would not conflict with the four major championships or heritage championships.

“LIV Golf has been consistent in its desire to complement the annual tour schedules and wider global golf ecosystem,” Norman wrote. “From the beginning, we designed this so players have the choice to play on any tour, and in LIV Golf events, and actively encourage you to do so. We will not ask you to choose one or the other. This is in addition to, not in place of, your current Tour schedule.

“I look forward to following up with you in the days ahead.  For now, all I ask is that you keep an open mind. It’s 100 percent in your interest to do so.”

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Lynch: Just like his Super League idea, Greg Norman’s war against the PGA Tour exists only on paper

Greg Norman’s dream of launching a rival tour is no closer than it was when last he tried three decades ago.

It’s unlikely that PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan will ever respond to the letter he received this week from Greg Norman, for much the same reason that he probably wouldn’t engage someone wearing a tinfoil hat and shrieking in the street. But if he did reply, Monahan could do worse than to heed the example of James Bailey, a former general counsel for the Cleveland Browns.

In 1974, an Akron, Ohio, lawyer named Dale Cox angrily threatened to sue the Browns over the dangers posed by fans launching paper airplanes around him in the stadium. Bailey returned the complainant’s letter with a famously terse response that has been widely circulated over the years.

“Dear Mr. Cox,” he wrote, “I feel that you should be aware that some asshole is signing your name to stupid letters.”

The letter to which Norman signed his name isn’t entirely useless beyond its obvious comedic value. It promised a legal fight that could extend far past the sell-by dates of the few remaining players rumored to be interested in joining Norman’s Saudi-financed Super Golf League, and even the tenures of both Norman and Monahan themselves. It also reinforced a perception that the SGL project has been hampered by bungling amateurism, mismanaged by people who are big on bluster but lacking in specifics.

After congratulating himself on spending decades fighting for the rights of players to be adequately paid—as distinct from the less important rights of the less important people under the boot of his employer—Norman addressed Monahan with a debating dexterity (and command of capitalization) that would be the envy of an eighth-grader.

“The Tour is the Players Tour not your administration’s Tour,” he wrote. “Why do you call the crown jewel in all tournaments outside the Majors “The Players Championship” and not “The Administration’s Championship?”

“You are guilty of going too far, being unfair, and you are likely in violation of the law.”

If a man isn’t embarrassed to peck out those words on behalf of the Saudi Arabian government, one supposes we shouldn’t be embarrassed for him.

The great white pilot fish insisted that Monahan can’t ban golfers from playing golf. Monahan hasn’t actually done that, though his comments suggest he believes he can decide whether they play on the tour he runs, much as McDonald’s might think it has a say in whether independent franchisees can simultaneously sell Burger King over the same counter. Norman went on to claim that top players are still interested in joining the League and demanded they be allowed to make a choice, perhaps forgetting that they have already publicly exercised that choice.

“Competition in all aspects of life, sport and business is healthy,” wrote the man whose boss rules by decree and avenges by bonesaw. As intemperate public comments go, the letter had the scent of a jilted suitor’s drunken Facebook post in the wee small hours. It was cheap guff masquerading as a legal threat, but it does indicate that the Saudi story has a ways to go, if only out of spite.

Last week, Rory McIlroy declared the League “dead in the water,” but that’s accurate only if you think the intent is to deliver a quality product fielding the world’s best players in events that engage fans. If you believe instead that the entire enterprise is about sportswashing, then it scarcely matters if competitors are beyond their primes. A Phil Mickelson and a Lee Westwood can be leveraged to present the image of a normalized Saudi state just as easily as a Jon Rahm or a Jordan Spieth. The relevancy of players should be measured only in relation to the Saudi goal, not the end quality of the product.

So what do Norman and his puppeteers do next?

For all the bleating in the letter to Monahan, the Saudis’ grounds for a lawsuit are not clear-cut. It’s difficult to establish actionable injury in claiming the PGA Tour is preventing you from establishing a rival endeavor if you have never actually stated your intent to launch such a business. That changes if players sign up and are then banned by Monahan, but as of now, the Saudis have no declared players and no declared intent to launch.

That leaves potential tactics more suited to irritants than competitors. The Saudis could use economic influence to undermine the DP World Tour’s Middle East schedule. There is precedent. Last year’s announcement of DP World as the old European Tour’s new title sponsor was delayed several months by a Saudi intervention. They could also stage an event in the U.S. and offer enormous appearance fees to players. The PGA Tour has never granted waivers for members to play events held in America opposite its own schedule. A refusal to permit members to play a Saudi event in the U.S. could be used as a Trojan horse to litigate the PGA Tour’s influence over its members and test the limits of the independent contractor status.

None of those options represent a pathway to near-term success for the Saudis.

Until both product and players are unveiled, the Super Golf League exists only on paper, much like the war Norman imagines himself to be waging. What we can deduce from the sophomoric tone of his letter to Monahan is that the Crown Prince’s paper tiger is realizing that his dream of launching a viable rival to the PGA Tour is no closer than it was when last he tried three decades ago.

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Commissioner Jay Monahan says PGA Tour moving on from potential Saudi Arabia-backed golf league

“I told the players we’re moving on and anyone on the fence needs to make a decision.”

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Commissioner Jay Monahan says he has the right to strip PGA Tour membership from players who would join the proposed rival league backed by Saudi Arabia.

Greg Norman, CEO of LIV Golf Investments, the group behind the potential league, insists Monahan can’t ban players if they join the golf league.

This suggests that if the Super Golf League does launch, the battle between the PGA Tour and the league would not play out on the golf course but in the courtroom. But that’s down the road.

For now, Monahan said the PGA Tour will forge ahead away from the league and the noise associated with it.

“I told the players we’re moving on and anyone on the fence needs to make a decision,” Monahan told the Associated Press on Wednesday, adding that any player joining the Saudi league would lose his Tour membership. “All this talk about the league and about money has been distracting to our players, our partners and most importantly our fans. We’re focused on legacy, not leverage.”

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Monahan met with players at a mandatory meeting on Tuesday at PGA National Resort. According to a player who attended the meeting, Monahan, when asked what would happen if a player signed up with the Saudis, “pointed to the door. We knew what that meant.”

But in a memo sent last week to select players and agents, Norman said any ban of a player would be “utterly impermissible under competition and other laws.” Among the bullet points in the memo, Norman wrote that the PGA Tour would violate antitrust laws were it to ban players, and the Tour will likely crumble under public pressure supporting players. He also accused the PGA Tour of being resistant to “entertain constructive dialogue for the betterment of the game and stakeholders across all sectors, particularly players.”

“Finally,” Norman wrote, “you should know that LIV Golf Investments is on the side of the players. None of us should stand for these egregious acts of bullying by the PGA Tour.”

On Thursday, Monahan received a letter from Norman warning the PGA Tour that this “certainly is not the end” of the rival league.

Ten minutes before the player meeting at PGA National Resort, Phil Mickelson, who has long been associated with the Saudi Arabia golf league, apologized in a statement for “reckless” comments concerning the league and the PGA Tour he made to Alan Shipnuck, the author of the soon-to-be-released “Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar.”

Mickelson told Shipnuck that he and three other players commissioned lawyers to draw up plans for the league and said he hoped to use the league that is guaranteeing exorbitant amounts of money as leverage against the PGA Tour.

“(The PGA Tour has) been able to get by with manipulative, coercive, strong-arm tactics because we, the players, had no recourse,” Mickelson told Shipnuck. “And the Saudi money has finally given us that leverage.”

Mickelson said he would try to do so despite acknowledging the Saudi Arabian regime’s history of committing human rights atrocities. In his statement, Mickelson, who said he was going to take time away from the game, also praised LIV Golf Investments, which shares “my drive to make the game better.”

Since releasing his statement, Mickelson’s longtime sponsors KPMG and Amstel Light severed their relationship with the member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

No player has publicly said they are joining the league while a chorus of the game’s biggest names, including Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Brooks Koepka, have said they would not join the league.

Koepka, however, said Tuesday he doesn’t think the Saudis will go away.

“I think it’s going to still keep going. I think there will still be talk,” the four-time major winner said. “Everyone talks about money. They’ve got enough of it. I don’t see it backing down; they can just double up, and they’ll figure it out.

“They’ll get their guys. Somebody will sell out and go to it.”

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