“This is a message to all young women that golf is for them, and they can pursue the sport as a passion and as a career.”
The Aramco Saudi Ladies International presented by PIF will feature a $5 million purse in 2023, up from $1 million this year, the Ladies European Tour has announced. The purse will now equal that of the men’s PIF Saudi International on the Asian Tour.
The 2023 tournament will take place Feb. 16-19 at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City and feature a field of 120 players from the LET, Rolex Rankings and sponsor exemptions. The winner will receive $750,000.
Georgia Hall won this year’s edition. The 2023 Aramco Saudi Ladies International will be staged the week prior to the Honda LPGA Thailand.
“The increased purse for the Aramco Saudi Ladies International presented by PIF is a landmark moment for our tour, and for women’s sport globally,” said LET CEO Alexandra Armas in a statement. “It will allow the tournament to grow in every way, from its purpose and impact on social change to the delivery of exceptional experiences for fans and for players at the event and in the community. This is a message to all young women that golf is for them, and they can pursue the sport as a passion and as a career.”
In addition to the Aramco Saudi Ladies International, the 2022 LET schedule also featured the Aramco Team Series, comprised of five events staged across the globe. Winners of those events this year include Manon De Roey, Bronte Law, Nelly Korda and Lexi Thompson. The final event in the series takes place this week in Saudi Arabia.
The LET’s Saudi-backed events remain controversial given the wide-ranging human rights abuses Saudi Arabia has been accused of, especially toward women.
On Tuesday at the Pelican Ladies Championship in Belleair, Florida, officials announced that next year’s renamed event – THE ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican – will feature a $3.25 million purse, the largest on tour outside of the majors and the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship.
“I came into today just the way I played yesterday, just playing aggressive golf, and being kind of fiery.”
Lexi Thompson hoisted a trophy for the first time in three years at the Aramco Team Series in New York. The 27-year-old American star, who last won at the 2019 ShopRite LPGA Classic, closed with a 69 at Trump Golf Links Ferry Point to win by three over Brooke Henderson and Madelene Sagstrom.
“I came into today just the way I played yesterday, just playing aggressive golf, and being kind of fiery,” said Thompson.
“I hit a great shot on No. 1 to like 6, 7 feet and made it and I wanted to play fearless golf and not play away from pins by any means and commit to my shots. I hit some really good ones and I hit some iffy ones but with this wind and everything, you have to take the bad ones as best you can.”
Thompson played the team portion of the event with former NFL player Brice Butler.
“We had a good time the last two days,” she said. “I think what Aramco and Saudi Golf does for golf and women’s golf especially is growing and very honored to be here.”
Former No. 1 Nelly Korda carded an even-par 72 to finish solo fourth, four shots back.
“It’s really nice to see her win and it’s really good for golf for her to win as well,” said Korda. “She played really solid golf, and she’s been playing really solid golf this year. It was just around the corner.”
Thompson, like Korda and Henderson, will skip the next two events in Asia and return to the LPGA for the final two events in Florida. Thompson lost to Korda last year in a playoff at the Pelican Women’s Championship. She’s a former champion of the CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, one of her favorite stops on tour.
The victory in New York serves as a significant confidence boost for the 11-time LPGA winner. Her only other victory on the LET came at the 2011 Dubai Ladies Masters.
“I have about two and a half, three weeks off,” said Thompson, “and I’m going to be working my butt off to keep on improving and hopefully finish strong in my last few events of the year.”
The Aramco Series carries points for World Rankings and the Race to Costa del Sol, a season-long race that determines the LET’s top golfer.
Golf Saudi backs six of the events on the LET schedule. The tournaments, backed by the Public Investment Fund, remain controversial given the wide-ranging human rights abuses Saudi Arabia has been accused of, especially toward women.
Leona Maguire was 15 years old the first time she played in the Irish Open.
It’s been 10 years since the Irish Open was last held, and it’s no coincidence that the event’s return coincides with the rise of a bona fide Irish star in Leona Maguire. Currently No. 18 in the world, Maguire has begun to fulfill the promise she showed as an amateur with her breakout performance at the 2021 Solheim Cup and maiden victory at the LPGA Drive On earlier this year.
Maguire’s hometown of Cavan threw a parade in her honor when she returned to Irish soil after last year’s Solheim. The 27-year-old Duke grad then became the first Irish player to win on the LPGA, and now her personal sponsor, KPMG, is the title sponsor of her national Open.
KPMG’s influence on the women’s game ranges from title sponsor of one of the five LPGA majors, to sponsorship of the Irish Kids Golf Tour, which is open to boys and girls ages 13 and under. They also financially back the LPGA’s reinvigorated stats system.
“It was always a big event when it was on the schedule a few years ago,” said Maguire of the Irish, “and it’s taken 10 years, but there’s been a lot of planning and organizing that has gone into it, and hopefully this can become a big event on the LET schedule for a long time to come.”
Maguire and twin sister Lisa played as amateurs at the Irish Open from 2009 to 2012 at Portmarnock and Killeen Castle. Leona was 15 years old the first time she played in the Irish Open, and she was paired with Dame Laura Davies, which she called intimidating.
“She was hitting that 2-iron of hers everywhere,” said Maguire, “and I was trying to hit my driver within 40 yards of it.”
Catriona Matthew, Maguire’s Solheim Cup captain last year, won the Irish in 2012 by a single stroke over Suzann Pettersen and will compete alongside Maguire this week in the first two rounds at Dromoland Castle. Matthew was also on the winning European Solheim Cup team at Killeen in 2011.
“I played the whole 18 now in the pro-am and I think it’s going to be a tricky golf course,” said Matthew. “The front nine is tricky off the tee and the greens are difficult. I’m really looking forward to it and there’s a real buzz about the tournament and it looks like we’re going to have some good crowds.”
Linn Grant, a four-time winner on the LET this season, highlights another marquee pairing along with up-and-coming teen Pia Babnik and 41-year-old Liz Young, who recently won her first LET title in Switzerland.
The 72-hole stroke-play event features a field of 126 and a purse of 400,000 euros.
Lydia Ko said she felt her second round Friday wasn’t as strong as her opening round on Thursday. Her score indicates otherwise.
Ko fired her second straight 7-under 65, taking a two-shot lead at 14 under following the second round of the Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open. She leads Lilia Vu by two shots and Eun-Hee Ji by three heading to the weekend.
With 36 holes to play, Ko is in the driver’s seat and looking for another victory.
“I had a few more birdie opportunities today that I missed,” Ko said. “When I made the turn, I made a really good par actually on the 18th hole, which was my ninth. Then hit a good drive down the first, and I got really good momentum.”
After going out in 1-under 35, Ko fired a 6-under 30 on her back nine, which was highlighted by a near hole-in-one on the par-3 fourth and an eagle on the par-5 fifth.
Ko hasn’t won a major on the LPGA since 2019 and hasn’t won a tournament since March.
The round of the day belonged to Ji, who shot an 8-under 64 to climb 15 spots on the leaderboard. Hye-Jin Choi, who led following the first round, is tied for sixth after a 1-under 71 performance.
The 58 days between Tuesday at Southern Hills and Thursday at St. Andrews promise to be a contentious period.
In their more reflective moments, it must rankle the triumvirate of Messrs. Waugh, Whan and Slumbers that the most compelling drama in golf over the coming months is likely to occur outside the ropes of their respective major championships. The 58 days between Tuesday at Southern Hills and Thursday at St. Andrews will be contentious and do much to shape the sport’s future landscape, and will leave many industry executives yearning for the halcyon days of Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf, when the influence of oil money in the game was considerably less toxic.
Seth Waugh’s PGA Championship is already being impacted. Phil Mickelson registered for the tournament but his agent said no conclusion about his schedule should be drawn from that, or his simultaneous request for permission from the PGA Tour to play a Saudi-funded event in the U.K. on June 9-11 (grimly meaningful numbers where the Saudis are concerned). Mickelson could defend his title at the PGA Championship, or he might stay home in the knowledge that doing so would only generate greater attention for the LIV Golf Invitational near London as the possible scene of his return.
The Saudi event in Britain is really just a distraction. Precedent exists for overseas money grabs so the PGA Tour will probably grant the necessary releases (perhaps with conditions attached) for members who want to compete, as it did for the Saudi International in February. Commissioner Jay Monahan’s decision must be rendered by May 10.
The first shots in the real war will be fired one week later.
Tuesday, May 17, falls during the week of the PGA Championship and is the deadline by which PGA Tour members must apply for waivers to compete in the second Saudi event, scheduled for July 1-3 at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in Portland, Oregon. Monahan’s decision on those asks must come no less than 30 days before the first round, or by Wednesday, June 1, but could be delivered at 5:01 p.m. on May 17. It will be a no.
PGA Tour rules do not allow releases for tournaments held in North America against its own schedule. Players know this—all of them signed up for the policies governing membership—so those who request an okay for Portland will be suspected of either stupidity or sedition. By May 17, the Tour will know who wants to play for Saudi cash in the U.S., a list that will probably include the names of some who intend to compete even without a release. And that’s where Monahan’s red line will be drawn, a belief emphasized in messages I’ve received in recent days from a number of his members.
Two scenarios then emerge: a player defies the Tour, triggering disciplinary action and potential litigation; or, the Saudis—under the innocuous-sounding moniker of LIV Golf—sue over the Tour’s refusal to grant releases, which would at least be an improvement on how the Crown Prince’s operatives usually handle disputes.
So Mike Whan’s U.S. Open will take place one week after the Saudi’s U.K. event and amid the fallout from waivers being denied for Portland. The toppling dominoes then reach the office of Martin Slumbers, whose Open Championship begins 11 days after Portland concludes. It’s feasible that by then Monahan may have issued suspensions. Will the R&A allow PGA Tour members not in good standing to compete at St. Andrews?
“There is no specific condition on that,” said an R&A spokesperson, wording sufficiently vague as to deny certainty to all. The same inquiry went to the U.S. Golf Association, although suspensions are unlikely prior to the U.S. Open. A USGA spokesperson replied: “We pride ourselves in being the most open championship in the world. However, we reserve the right, as we always have, to review suspensions from other golf organizations on a case-by-case basis.”
If the R&A takes a similar tack, then some well-known players might be denied entry to the 150th Open, though the names generating most speculation are unlikely to be of concern to the engraver come Sunday evening anyway.
The 58 days from May 17 to July 14 will reveal the extent to which golf’s bodies view Saudi sportswashing as a shared challenge. Absent from that fight will be Alexandra Armas. The CEO of the Ladies European Tour is continuing her ghastly flattery of the Saudi regime, to whom she bartered her circuit in exchange for sponsorship of five events. “To many of our members, these events feel like majors,” she gushed this week.
The LET runs on fumes—purses in non-Saudi tournaments are typically around $300,000—which is why Armas has put members in the position of choosing between abetting Saudi sportswashing or not making a living. It’s easier to understand her rationale than that of men on lucrative tours who make an individual choice to take Saudi money, but the decisions made by either are worthy of derision.
If the attempted Saudi hijacking of golf is ultimately repelled—an outcome far from certain—there ought to follow a proper reckoning on where and with whom professional tours do business. However much the tours view this as a matter of commerce and competition, there also exists a moral imperative to ensure golf is not used to normalize authoritarian states. The LET won’t lack company in the dock. The Asian Tour sold itself wholesale to the Saudis. The DP World Tour has long been compromised by visiting undemocratic provinces. So too has the PGA Tour with its presence in China.
Those indulgences are indefensible and should cease. Doing so might even weaken the water sprinkler of Whataboutism on social media, a phenomenon powered by clods who think discussion of one wrong is illegitimate unless it’s footnoted with misdeeds by every organization, individual, company and nation they deem indictable.
In the coming weeks, three of golf’s four great championships will feel the repercussions of years of improvident deal-making by tours whose commercial decisions helped lead to the geopolitical juncture at which the game finds itself. All four majors might ultimately prove to be the last bulwark against the entire sport’s looming disgrace.
Georgia Hall is in pole position to claim her maiden regular-season Ladies European Tour (LET) tournament title after cruising into a five-shot lead ahead of Sunday’s final round at the $1 million Aramco Saudi Ladies International presented by Public Investment Fund.
A near-perfect four-under-par 68 has put the 25-year-old firmly in control on 10-under-par at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club on the Jeddah coast.
Reigning AIG Women’s Open champion Anna Nordqvist is in closest striking distance to Hall at five shots back on five-under — one ahead of compatriot Johanna Gustavsson.
“My ability is better than it’s ever been in my career. I feel like I could be playing up there with the best.”
Gabriella Then didn’t know much about the Ladies European Tour when she signed up to go to Q-School in Spain at the request of a friend. This was, after all, a second act of sorts. She’d already quit tour life once. Why not try something totally different?
Then, 26, actually won Q-School at the La Manga Club, and then got the shock of her life when she realized that much of the Ladies European Tour isn’t actually staged in Europe.
“I literally thought it was Europe, plus Dubai,” she said.
The questions flew about after she won, most notably: Are you going to stay in Europe? How are you going to pay for all of this?
Before getting into the financial aspect of flying from California to Saudi Arabia and Africa for the first three starts of her season (the LET kicked off earlier this month in Kenya), it’s worth noting how Then got to this point.
She was a dedicated golfer almost from the start, picking up the game at age five, recording her first birdie at age eight, qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Amateur at age 12, competing in her first U.S. Women’s Open at age 14. Then won the 2013 U.S. Girls’ Junior just weeks before starting classes at USC, where she set the school record for rounds played over the course of her four-year career.
USC head coach Justin Silverstein calls Then “a worker,” and that dedication extended beyond the practice tee. Then’s parents funded her junior and amateur career, but she knew that to get to the next level, she’d need to start making money herself.
Throughout her time in college Then worked a host of jobs, stashing away money for Q-School and the Epson Tour (formerly Symetra).
In 2019, after she missed out on advancing to Stage II of LPGA Qualifying School by a single stroke, Then decided it was time to do something else. She’d been out on what’s now known as the Epson Tour for three seasons and found both her bank account and drive running low.
She took a job in marketing and sales at Le Mieux skin care, and became a spectator of the game, following boyfriend Eric Sugimoto, who played at USC at the same time, to the Japan Golf Tour.
USC’s Gabriella Then during the Annika Intercollegiate.
After a while outside the ropes, Then started to wonder if she’d quit pro golf too soon.
Her close circle chipped in some cash to get her started again on the Cactus Tour, where she feared she might have forgotten everything she’d known in her 18 months away from the game.
Instead, she won three times in four months on the Cactus and Women’s All Pro Tours, reigniting her passion in the process. Then had emptied her savings account to go all-in on herself for a second time.
“I feel like I’m playing for my own personal goals and my own love of the game,” she said of how this time feels different.
It was Kaley In who first suggested LET Q-School. The two friends practice together at Big Canyon Country Club in Newport Beach, California. Then knew she’d have some Epson Tour status from her finish at Stage II of LPGA Q-School last year, but Europe offered a whole new experience.
“I was very overwhelmed when I saw the schedule,” said Then after she won the qualifier. “Wow, these are places I never thought I’d touch in my entire life.”
Then she started to budget for the year and realized that her expenses would be double and triple what she needed for the Epson Tour.
Then has a handful of sponsors in Dave’s Hot Chicken, Konnect Resource, and goodr sunglasses. But she knew she’d need more help to get started on the LET, a route very few Americans take.
“Since I’ve been a professional golfer for five years, I am kind of used to it,” said Then of asking for money. “I’m kind of used to this constant fundraising, this constant networking, which I love to do.”
Though starting a GoFundMe page, however, was new to her and took some convincing from friends. She went live with her GoFundMe page at 8 p.m. three weeks ago, first sending a note privately to those she thought might support before going public on social media.
“In that alone I had 15 different people donate right away,” she said, “in amounts that I never could’ve even imagined. I was so shocked I was tearing up that night.”
To date, Then has raised just over $16,000 on the GoFundMe platform and is nearing the halfway mark of her $40,000 goal.
Then’s time at USC overlapped with AIG Women’s British Open champion Sophia Popov, and the two friends have been in contact quite a bit of late as Then prepares for a year of golf that will likely be split between the LET and Epson Tours. Popov’s story of nearly quitting the game, winning on the Cactus Tour, and then, months later, winning a major is one that continues to inspire.
Silverstein describes Then as an eternal optimist, the kind of person who has time for everyone and sees the glass half-full. That mentality will continue to serve Then well as she chases the dream of the LPGA a second time.
“My ability is better than it’s ever been in my career,” said Then. “I feel like I could be playing up there with the best.”
She’s willing to go to the ends of the earth to make it happen.
The silence that greeted the Ladies European Tour playing in Saudi Arabia this week reflects a couple of realities.
The silence that greeted the Ladies European Tour playing in Saudi Arabia this week—at least relative to the censure faced by men who do the same—reflects two realities: the inattention given women’s golf in general and the LET in particular, and the principle that everyone bails water on a sinking ship.
The inaugural Saudi Ladies International in 2020 was the first professional women’s sporting event held in the kingdom. It’s $1 million prize fund commands attention on a tour where many purses are under $250,000, and where the woman ranked 10th on the money list has earned less than $160,000 this year. Compare that to the LPGA tour, where the equivalent paltry purses are five times as lucrative (many ten times so) and where 10th on the money list is good for $1.1 million.
Such gloomy financials means that a regime eager to use sports for a blackguardly agenda—say, to launder a reputation for human rights abuses and genocidal mania—could essentially buy the LET for a fraction of what one male superstar might demand to join a Super League. Thus, Saudi Arabia has invested $5 million in eight tournaments on the ’21 LET schedule, the same amount they offered men for one event, the Saudi International. Toss in the cost of lucrative appearance fees and chartered aircraft lavished on golfers with a Y chromosome, and the kingdom could make the LET a formidable entity. But that would require the recent Saudi interest in golf to be motivated by noble or even commercial objectives rather than simply distracting from unpleasant facts.
Alexandra Armas, the pragmatic CEO of the LET, went with those willing to pay her members, even if she’s determined to dress it up in platitudes about growing the game among Saudi women.
“The reaction we got last year blew everyone’s mind,” Armas said this week. “It just made sense to come back to do it again and to keep building on that and I think that is what we will be doing going forward. Golf Saudi has big plans for the women’s game. Although we’re only at the beginning, it’s been a fast trajectory.”
Executioner’s blades have a pretty fast trajectory too, but Armas didn’t detour into that cul-de-sac. However, she did go on to talk up gender equality, a dissonant moment that called to mind Adlai Stevenson’s famous crack about Richard Nixon chopping down a redwood then mounting the stump to give a conservation speech.
Even if the LET’s leadership can’t afford to look beyond money, some players can. I asked Meghan MacLaren, twice a winner on the tour, why she skipped the Saudi stop, as she did last year too. “It doesn’t take a lot of research to infer what the purpose of these events, and others across all sports, truly is,” she replied, referencing the widespread accusations of Saudi sportswashing. “I would like to be wrong but while that remains the case, being a part of it makes me incredibly uncomfortable. It doesn’t fit with the values I have.”
Professional sport has always been an enterprise marked by unsavory alliances and deals with the despicable. That’s especially true in its more gritty and underfunded precincts, where few athletes can afford to stand on principle because principles don’t pay rent. The Saudis understand that calculus. When it comes to the LET, they depend on it.
”It is apparent that things aren’t slowing down, particularly in women’s golf,” MacLaren said. “Whatever any of our thoughts on that are, it is not a black and white issue, particularly when it starts to affect such a big part of players’ careers.”
MacLaren’s moral compass points us to the key factor that differentiates women who compete in Saudi Arabia from men who do the same, and even moreso from the guys who would sign on to a breakaway Super Golf League concept: need versus greed.
There are 166 players on the official LET money list for 2021. With just two events left in the season, 97 of those women have failed to earn €20,000 (or about $23,000) in prize money, A solo 45th place finish this week on the PGA Tour pays more, and plenty of guys competing at Mayakoba will burn as much in private jet fuel before clearing Mexican airspace. So is it reasonable to apply the same standard to golfers who can’t afford to make a moral decision on where to play as we do to those who can?
It’s pointless to fault LET members and executives for pursuing pitifully scarce cash, or the Saudis for their opportunism. And it’s simplistic to argue that a tour which can only survive on financing by despots is unworthy of saving, or that LET members ought to just play better and make it to the LPGA tour. The most effective defense against this Saudi sportswashing lies in replacing the current splintered, vulnerable model with a unified, global women’s tour and robust feeder circuit. In short, hastening what has long been economically inevitable. The creation of such a tour should be aided by the logistical, financial and commercial might of the PGA and European tours.
The Saudis are vowing to vast sums of money to force a radical realignment in men’s golf. Their $5 million in loose change should—albeit unintentionally—help spur an altogether more positive one in the women’s game too.
Bronte Law came out on top after a back-and-forth shootout under the lights at the Dubai Moonlight Classic.
It seemingly happened so fast. Bronte Law shut the door on what had been a back-and-forth shootout under the lights at the Dubai Moonlight Classic with an eagle on the 16th hole and an absolute dart on the par-3 17th (her last due to the shotgun start) that was so good, she didn’t even need to watch.
Maria Fassi, who looked on the brink of winning all day, surely didn’t know what hit her.
The day started with 19 players within six shots of the lead over the Faldo Course at Emirates Golf Club and ended with Law carding an 8-under 64 to claim her first victory on the Ladies European Tour. Law finished at 15 under for the 54-hole tournament, edging Fassi by one stroke.
Germany’s Esther Henseleit finished alone in third at 12 under.
“It’s a bit of a blur really,” said Law. “I just went out and was trying to post a number. I said to my caddie, Ken, yesterday, ‘Let’s go out and try to shoot 7 under tomorrow.’ And I’ve gone one better.
“It’s a bit surreal right now, actually,” she said. “I’m just so happy to be back here (in the winner’s circle). It’s been a while.”
This week marked Law’s seventh in a row. There was a time, she said, that she couldn’t play three in a row due to back pain.
“It’s hard when things aren’t going your way and you feel like the world is against you,” said Law, “but I’ve got a lot of people that have stuck by me, and I owe them a lot.”
Law, who was a hero at the 2019 Solheim Cup, didn’t make the 2021 European team.
“I don’t think people understand how hard it is to be an athlete and the scrutiny that you’re under,” said Law. “You question yourself at times, and it’s so hard to pull yourself back through that, but I’ve trusted the process and obviously it’s working.”
For a while, it looked like Fassi might be headed back to LPGA Q-Series this year. But the former NCAA champ from Arkansas pulled it together after surgery and a string of missed cuts to finish fifth at the ShopRite LPGA Classic and T-15 at the Amundi Evian Championship. She’s currently 86th in the CME Rankings. The top 100 keep their cards for 2022.
“I think I played good golf all week,” said Fassi, who shot 63-71-68, “but Bronte shot 8 under today. It’s never nice to lose, but to lose when she played like that, she very much deserved to be crowned champion today.”
Greg Norman is expected to be announced as the frontman for the new circuit, sources have also confirmed.
Multiple sources have confirmed to Golfweek that a private meeting with golf media members will take place on Wednesday night, outlining plans for a new Saudi-backed golf series.
Greg Norman is expected to be announced as the commissioner for the new circuit, sources have also confirmed.
It’s unclear whether the new series will be unveiled as a full league—the Saudis have previously pitched the Premier Golf League (PGL) and Super Golf League (SGL) to no avail—or as a trial balloon with a handful of tournaments. Nor is it clear what the PGA Tour will do in response.
Media members who attend the session in New York City will be asked to hold the news until early next week, sources have confirmed. Golfweek, which has written critically about the potential tour in the past, was not invited to attend the event.
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With the Saudis behind the push, the new circuit will have the cash to lure top names. Back in May, a group made multi-million dollar offers to several of the game’s best players, including then-world No. 1 Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Rickie Fowler and Justin Rose, with some reaching in the neighborhood of $50 million.
That proposed league was expected to feature 40-48 players playing an 18-event schedule in tournaments around the world with lucrative purses, with a season-ending team championship. The league would have included guaranteed money as well as a team concept that would dole out ownership stakes for 10-12 players who would captain four-man teams.
The PGA Tour also announced a new strategic partnership with the European Tour.
The unencumbered Asian Tour, however, is still a viable option for with whom the Saudis could partner. In fact, the 2022 Saudi International in February will be conducted under the auspices of that tour, in which the Saudis made a $100 million investment. Golfweek last week reported that eight PGA Tour players have asked for permission to participate in that event. Tour players need to obtain a release to compete on other circuits.
Norman is an interesting, but natural choice to front the new series. In 1994, he proposed the World Golf Tour, a series of eight no-cut events intended to bring 40 players together. The plan was shot down by the Tour, yet then-commissioner Tim Finchem announced the World Golf Championships in 1997, adhering to many of the same principles. Golfweek reached out to Norman’s public relations person, Jane MacNeille, but didn’t get a response.
Norman was among those flown in to take part in the inaugural Golf Saudi Summit in 2020. Others who also took part in that event included Asian Tour CEO Cho Minn Thant and Ladies European Tour CEO Alexandra Armas.
Saudi Golf has been forcing its way into the international golf scene in recent years, including ownership of the Ladies European Tour’s Aramco Team Series, which made its third of four stops at the Glen Oaks Club on Oct. 14-16. Nelly Korda, Lexi Thompson, Jessica Korda, Danielle Kang and Lizette Salas were among the American players in the field. The final stop of that series will be in November in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club, the same venue hosting the Saudi International.
