Greg Norman: PGA Tour guilty of ‘deafening hypocrisy’ over LIV and Saudi finances
Greg Norman has accused the PGA Tour of “deafening hypocrisy” and demanded that commissioner Jay Monahan recused himself from the decision whether to grant world ranking points to the Saudi rebel circuit.
Norman, the chief executive of the LIV Golf Invitational Series, revealed that the board of the Official World Golf Rankings would receive LIV’s formal application by Monday evening and insisted that it should be rubber-stamped.
The issue is seen as a key battlefield in the fight between LIV and the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour – formerly the European Tour – with the access to ranking points crucial for the rebel players’ hopes of appearing in future majors.
Here at the US Open, Mike Whan, the executive director of the US Golf Association, said last week that he could envision scenarios that would make it much harder for LIV Series players to compete in this major.
Whan is on the OWGR board, as are Monahan and Keith Pelley, the chief executive of the DP World Tour, as well as Martin Slumbers, the R&A chief executive, and Norman is keen to put as much pressure as possible on the panel.
“We’re actually applying for OWGR points right now. We’re putting in our application probably over the weekend, if not Monday,” Norman told Fox News. “It’s a very compelling application. We’ve worked very closely with the technical committee understanding all the components of what you need to apply for it.
“It’s going to be interesting because on the board that votes on the OWGR points for anybody new coming in, here’s Jay Monahan. It’ll be interesting to see if Jay Monahan recuses himself from that vote because of what he said on television with Jim Nantz the other day.
“It’s sad to be putting that additional pressure on it because our tour is a good tour. It’s supported, it’s got an incredible field. If we get the OWGR points, then everything else takes care of itself.”
In the interview with broadcaster Nantz on CBS, Monahan called LIV “a series of exhibition matches against the same players over and over”. He also shone a spotlight on the ethical concerns he believed the rebel players should harbour over Saudi “sportswashing”.
“It’s not an issue for me, because I don’t work for the Saudi Arabian government. It probably is an issue for those players that chose to take that money,” Monahan said. “You have to ask the question … why? Why is this group spending so much money recruiting players and chasing a concept with no possibility of a return? How is this good for the game that we love? Tell me, when has a player ever had to apologise for playing on the PGA Tour.”
Inevitably, this raised Norman’s ire. “Look, I’m disappointed people go down that path,” he said, when asked about the charges of LIV being bankrolled by “blood money”.
“If they want to look at it in prism, then why does the PGA Tour have 23 sponsors doing business worth $40-plus billion with Saudi Arabia? Why is it OK for the sponsors? Will Jay Monahan go to each and every one of those CEOs of the 23 companies that are investing into Saudi Arabia and suspend them and ban them? The hypocrisy in all this, it’s so loud. It’s deafening.
“The European Tour had a golf tournament, the Saudi International, that’s still in existence since 2019. During that Saudi International, there were PGA Tour players who were given rights and waivers to play there. So to me, if golf is good for the world, golf is good for Saudi, and you’re seeing that growth internally, it’s extremely impressive.”
The first $25 million (£20 million) no-cut LIV event took place in Hertfordshire this month and next week the series arrives in the United States for its second tournament in Portland, Oregon.
The 48-man field is expected to be announced in the next few days, with major winners Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed two of the confirmed new players.
Monahan issued indefinite bans to the 17 who played in Hemel Hempstead and will also ban anyone else who appears on the LIV roster.
