LIV Golf not going wherever; “completely separate” from PGA Tour, PIF negotiations

Since LIV Golf launched within the spring of 2022, golf has been in flux, with the sport’s finest gamers competing on two separate circuits.

Many different points exist inside this actuality, too. Cash, fairness, and, given who LIV Golf’s beneficiary is, ethical points and geopolitical ramifications have all bled into the game.

However, in an try and rectify this, PGA Tour brass and the Saudi Public Funding Fund (PIF) established a framework settlement on Jun. 6, 2023, that not solely shocked the sporting world but additionally set a pathway for the 2 sides to return collectively and re-establish a unified golf tour. Negotiations have occurred since then, however a finalized deal stays far-off.

But, LIV Golf didn’t seem inside that framework settlement then, and they don’t have any affect on these negotiations now, based on LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman.

“I’d love to provide you perception, however I don’t have any. We at LIV are completely separate from that a part of the negotiation,” Norman stated in South Australia forward of this week’s LIV Golf Adelaide occasion.

Picture by Brenton Edwards/Getty Photos

“We at LIV are a standalone firm being invested in by the identical investor within the recreation of golf. Our investor needed to spend money on LIV as a result of he liked the chance of the franchise mannequin, what he might do with it, and the way we might construct it out on a worldwide platform.”

Since final June, Norman has continued to champion LIV Golf’s trigger, indicating on quite a few events that its power as a start-up league has by no means been stronger.

No person is aware of how LIV will look or the way it will match into skilled golf’s new construction ought to the PGA Tour and the PIF strike a deal.

However Norman stays as assured in LIV Golf as he ever has. He stated he obtained quite a few compliments at Augusta Nationwide, the place he lingered among the many patrons at this yr’s Masters Match. Norman stated dozens of individuals approached him there and advised him they love what he and LIV Golf have completed.

“The assist, the popularity, the feedback that had been made, it was nearly unanimous for 3 straight days strolling round with folks,” Norman stated.

“To see it and to listen to it and to listen to the feedback they made about what’s taking place to the sport of golf and the go that LIV has dropped at the sport of golf, it was very, very robust for me. It was a really highly effective three days.”

Picture by Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Photos

Norman, who envisioned a worldwide golf tour within the mid-1990s, has seen that dream develop into a actuality by way of LIV. He has helped carry golf to totally different locations world wide typically uncared for by the PGA Tour and different main excursions, corresponding to Singapore, Thailand, and his native Australia.

In its first full yr of operation final yr, the occasion in Adelaide welcomed 77,000 followers, making it LIV’s most profitable occasion of 2023. The “Watering Gap,” which has drawn comparisons to TPC Scottsdale’s well-known par-3 16th, was a smashing success, too.

Over 100,000 spectators are anticipated on the South Australia event this week.

“This occasion right here from final to this yr is the benchmark for LIV,” Norman stated.

“We get all the opposite occasions, 13 occasions world wide, to check out what we’ve delivered right here, what Adelaide has delivered, what the state authorities has delivered, and what the area people and the area have delivered, and also you go. It may be performed.”

Norman’s focus stays on LIV, not on the negotiations between the PIF and the PGA Tour.

“I don’t know what’s occurring over there,” Norman added.

“I actually don’t wish to know what’s occurring over there as a result of we’re so fixated on rising and growing and constructing out what LIV is at present and looking out and doing our schedule for 2025 and going into 2026. Our duty is to take care of our folks, our gamers, and the place we wish to go.”

Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Taking part in Via. Be sure you try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You’ll be able to comply with him on Twitter @jack_milko as effectively.