In LIV’s first six events, Johnson earned five top-10 finishes and a win in Boston.
Dustin Johnson won LIV Golf’s individual crown before the series made it to the Kingdom.
As the upstart circuit led by Greg Norman and backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund prepares to host its regular-season finale in Jeddah later this week, Johnson left little to play for after claiming the individual title and its $18-million prize following his 16th-place finish at last week’s event in Bangkok.
LIV’s season-long individual competition awards points to the top 24 finishers from each event. Johnson, who bagged five top-10 finishes and a win over the first six events, has 121 points to his name, 42 more than Branden Grace in second. This week’s event in Jeddah offers 40 points to the winner and 30 points for second place.
“Locking up the individual competition is big. It’s an honor to be LIV’s first individual season champion,” Johnson said via a release. Over six events the two-time major champion has earned $9,758,600 for his individual performances and $3,000,000 for his 4Aces team performances for a whopping total of $12,758,600.
“From the start, he’s been a LIV Golf cornerstone,” Norman said of Johnson. “He has more than lived up to his billing and he deserves immense credit for clinching LIV’s first individual season title. We look forward to a celebration befitting such a champion in Miami at the end of October.”
Finishing second and third on the season-long points list can still earn players a quick bonus seeing as the runner-up will earn $8 million with another $4 million going to third place. As it stands, Nos. 2-15 are separated by just 39 points: Grace (79), Patrick Reed (76), Cameron Smith (56), Charl Schwartzel (55), Carlos Ortiz (50), Matthew Wolff (50), Peter Uihlein (49), Louis Oosthuizen (49), Talor Gooch (49), Sergio Garcia (44), Joaquin Niemann (42), Eugenio Chacarra (41), Henrik Stenson (40) and Paul Casey (40).
Following this week’s event in Saudi Arabia, the series will return stateside for the LIV Golf Team Championship in Miami at Trump National Doral, Oct. 28-30, where teams will compete for $50 million.
“I still can play,” Norman said. “I know I can still play.
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — First, Greg Norman was told he was not invited to play the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews.
Then he received the letter saying he was not welcome to play in a four-hole exhibition at the Old Course and not to show up at the Champions’ Dinner.
The two-time Open champion and CEO of the LIV Golf Series chalked it up as another “petty” decision in the ongoing golf wars.
“There have been a lot of dumb decisions made, quite honestly, and this one seemed as if it was very petty,” Norman told the Palm Beach Post Monday. He was talking from LIV’s headquarters in West Palm Beach.
Norman’s request to play in this week’s tournament was not unusual.
Yes, he is 67, but he said he recently broke his age in a round at the Medalist Golf Club in Hobe Sound. But the Hall of Famer with 20 PGA Tour titles and more than 90 worldwide wins has become an outcast since joining the breakaway tour being financially backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
“Governing bodies should stay above the fray,” said Norman, who lives in Palm Beach Gardens. “They should be Switzerland. For them to stoop to this level … as a past Open champion and all I’ve done for the game of golf on a global basis, I fit the model of what the R&A is all about, right? The Royal and Ancient growing the game of golf on the grassroots level. They only have to look at what I’ve been doing in Vietnam growing the game of golf. That’s why it’s so petty.”
The Open was first played at the Old Course at St. Andrews in 1873 and this will be the 30th time at the venue. Norman won the 1986 Open at Turnberry in Scotland and the 1993 Open at Royal St George’s Golf Club in Sandwich.
“I still can play,” Norman said. “I know I can still play.
“Looking at the weather conditions, it’s very hot and very dry so the ball is rolling, running out pretty good. That’s right up my alley. Who knows.”
Norman’s last competitive round of golf was the 2012 Senior Open Championship. His last major was the 2009 Open Championship at Turnberry. He shot a 77-75 and missed the cut.
Tom D’Angelo is a journalist at the Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at tdangelo@pbpost.com.
That leaves it unclear if equipment makers will continue to support players on the new Saudi Arabia-backed tour. The LIV tour released its initial player list Tuesday evening, and as of Wednesday morning many of those players are still featured on equipment websites such as taylormadegolf.com, callawaygolf.com and pinggolf.com, as examples.
When asked by Golfweek‘s David Dusek via email Tuesday night if former world No. 1 Johnson will continue to wear TaylorMade hats and use branded bags, a TaylorMade representative responded, “We have no comment to make at this time.” That response also included Sergio Garcia’s use of a TaylorMade bag. Other companies such as Ping and Adidas did not respond to initial emails seeking comment.
This initial non-reaction follows Callaway’s sponsorship “pause” with Phil Mickelson several days after his comments about his motivations to join the LIV circuit were published by author Alan Shipnuck in February. Those comments included calling the Saudi backers of the new series “scary motherf——” and explained he was interested in documented Saudi human rights offenses less than in gaining financial leverage on the PGA Tour, which he called obnoxiously greedy.
Mickelson wasn’t included on the initial player list for the opening LIV event, although it’s possible he still might play. Mickelson has not played the PGA Tour since those comments and has visited his parents’ home in California during the week of the recent PGA Championship, where he was defending champion.
None of the players on the field list have made such outlandish publicized comments, possibly making it easier for equipment makers to ride out any potential controversy as the PGA Tour and the LIV Golf Series engage in battle and players jump ship.
Phil Mickelson’s agency confirms he’s signed up for a few events this summer.
The PGA of America released its current field list for the 2022 PGA Championship on Monday and six-time major winner and defending PGA champ Phil Mickelson is on the there.
Also on Monday, his representatives released a statement announcing two other events Mickelson has signed up for.
“Our client Phil Mickelson is officially registered to play in the PGA Championship as well as the U.S. Open,” read the statement from Steve Loy of Sportfive. The 122nd U.S. Open will be June 16-19 at The Country Club. It’s the one major that Mickelson has never won.
“We have also filed a request on his behalf for a release to play in the first LIV Golf Invitational in London, June 9 – 11. This request complies with the deadline of April 25 set forth by the PGA Tour to compete in a conflicting tour event.
“Phil currently has no concrete plans on when and where he will play. Any actions taken are in no way a reflection of a final decision made, but rather to keep all options open.”
Monday was the deadline for PGA Tour players to request a release to play in the Saudi-backed tournament. An article written by Bob Harig of SI.com/The Morning Read said 70 players, all who remained anonymous, have committed to play in June at Centurion Golf Club in London.
Mickelson last played on the PGA Tour at the Farmers Insurance Open in his hometown of San Diego. Mickelson missed the cut after scores of 71 and 76. He later competed in the Saudi International in early February. He tied for 18th after scores of 67-69-71-69.
The full field for the PGA Championship at Southern Hills in Tulsa will be set on May 9. The tournament is May 16-19.
Mickelson did not play in the 2022 Masters. He played in his first Masters in 1993 and had played in the tournament every year since 1995.
Mickelson has been embroiled in controversy for derogatory comments he made to Golf Digest and Fire Pit Collective about the PGA Tour and its commissioner, Jay Monahan, as well as the repressive Saudi Arabia regime, which is bankrolling a breakaway league led by Greg Norman that plans to rival the PGA Tour.
Mickelson called out the PGA Tour for its “obnoxious greed,” and said he would use the rival league backed by enormous financial resources as leverage against the PGA Tour despite the country’s long history of human rights abuses.
Steve DiMeglio and Craig Dolch contributed to this article.
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.
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.
The deadline for players to request a PGA Tour waiver to play in London is April 25.
A career journeyman has become the first PGA Tour member to apply for permission to compete in a controversial tournament funded by the Saudi Arabian regime in England this summer.
Multiple sources told Golfweek that Robert Garrigus has requested a release from the PGA Tour to play in the LIV Golf Invitational, scheduled for June 9-11 at the Centurion Club in London. PGA Tour members are required to obtain a waiver to compete in events held on other circuits. Such applications must be submitted at least 45 days before the first round of the tournament, which means the deadline for players to request a green light to play for Saudi cash in London is Monday, April 25.
Sources say Garrigus is the only Tour player who has filed for a waiver so far, though others are expected to do so. The Tour must decide on applications 30 days before the event begins, or by Tuesday, May 10.
A spokesperson for the PGA Tour declined to comment on Garrigus or on releases for the Saudi event. Kevin Canning, the agent for Garrigus, also declined comment.
The tournament in London is the first of eight scheduled events announced by Greg Norman, who has been the public face of LIV Golf, an organization financed by the Saudi government’s Public Investment Fund. The lucrative tournaments—$25 million purses with $4 million for first place—have been widely criticized as a blatant attempt by the Saudi regime to “sportswash” its human rights abuses.
The Saudis originally planned an 18-event breakaway tour featuring only the best players in the world but that scheme faltered when almost every top player rejected offers to join and pledged to remain on the PGA Tour. LIV Golf has since abandoned any immediate hope of launching a rival league and is instead trying to gain traction by staging individual tournaments, four of which are scheduled in the U.S., the first being July 1-3 at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in Portland, Oregon.
It’s expected that fields for the LIV Golf events will largely be comprised of journeymen from the PGA Tour and DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour). Norman recently admitted that amateurs may also be invited to compete, and that his strategy is to make elite players jealous at seeing also-rans win enormous sums of money, hoping that envy will eventually draw top-tier talent to his events.
Garrigus, 44, joined the PGA Tour in 2006. He has one career victory, the Children’s Miracle Network Classic in 2010, and has not made the field in a major championship since 2013. He has made just four starts this season, with his best finish a tie for 16th at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He last played a full season on Tour in 2017-2018. His last top-10 finish came at the Farmers Insurance Open four years ago. Since then, he has earned $320,597.
In 2020-21, Garrigus played 20 events on the Korn Ferry Tour, recording two top 25s and missing the cut 13 times, ending the season ranked 190th in earnings. He currently has limited status on the PGA Tour as a veteran and past champion. His career earnings on the PGA Tour total $14.9 million.
Garrigus is in the field for this week’s team event, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, with Tommy Gainey.
“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.”
“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.
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.
