WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — Greg Norman already is looking toward his next LIV Golf venture.
The CEO of the Saudi-backed golf series is confident a women’s LIV Golf league is in the future.
“One hundred percent. Drop the mic on that,” Norman said when asked if he envisioned a women’s LIV league. He was speaking at LIV’s West Palm Beach offices this week.
“We have discussed it internally, the opportunity is there,” Norman continued. “We’ve actually had one of the most iconic female golfers sitting in this room having a conversation with her. She absolutely loves the whole concept and is behind the whole concept.”
The reason? “Aramco is already the largest sponsor of women’s golf in the world. Aramco, a Saudi company.”
Aramco, the Saudi Arabian integrated energy and chemicals company is in partnership with the Ladies European Tour. The Saudi-backed Aramco Team Series takes place across three continents. A team series aligns with LIV Golf’s team concept that has become the most popular feature of its men’s series.
Aramco is not a corporate partner of the LPGA, but Greg Norman Collection is listed as a licensee partner since 2017.
The Aramco Team Series attracted many of sport’s biggest stars last year, including world No. 7 Lexi Thompson, Jessica Korda and her sister, No. 3 ranked Nelly Korda. The Centurion Club outside of London hosts an Aramco series event and was the site of LIV Golf’s inaugural event.
Greg Norman: ‘Why is it OK for’ women’s golf to be backed by Saudi finance?
“Why is it OK for them and nobody barks at them?” Norman said. “But the boys, they’re barking at you.
“It’s simple, because it all starts out of the headquarters in Jacksonville.”
Norman was referring to the PGA Tour headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, and Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, who called LIV Golf an “irrational threat” and said it is not concerned with a true growth of the game.
LIV has poached about 20 percent of the top 100 players in the World Golf Rankings with its huge signing bonuses and $25 million purses. Among those are two of the top 20, Jupiter’s Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka.
Monahan has suspended anyone who plays a LIV event from the PGA Tour. Some of those, including Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace, have resigned from the PGA Tour. Schwartzel and Grace won the first two LIV events.
Norman called a women’s LIV league “a logical step” as LIV develops and grows its business model.
Cristie Kerr, a two-time major winner, believes most members of the LPGA Tour would defect to a LIV Golf series.
“Put it this way, I think you would see almost the entire tour do it here,” Kerr told Golfweek at last month’s Women’s PGA Championship. “What we play for here compared to the men’s Tour, the scale is different.
“But at the same time, KPMG just upped the purse to $9 million. We’re starting to see a rising tide lifting all the ships. … It’ll be interesting to see how it affects this tour.”
Karrie Webb, a seven time major winner, said she is concerned that Norman might threaten the LPGA Tour.
“I know that he’s had this vendetta against the PGA Tour as long as I’ve known him,” Webb, like Norman a native of Australia, told Golfweek. “So I don’t think there would be any changing him. I would just ask him that in his ambition to succeed, that he doesn’t ruin women’s golf in the process.”
A women’s LIV Golf League would heighten the cries of Saudi Arabia using “sportswashing” to cover up its record of human rights atrocities. Although women’s rights are growing in the Saudi Arabia, women who join would be aligning themselves with a country that has suppressed women.
Women in Saudi Arabia experience discrimination in relation to marriage, family and divorce, according to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. The government continues to target and repress women’s rights activists.
Tom D’Angelo is a journalist at the Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at tdangelo@pbpost.com.
