NAPLES, Florida — Billions of dollars in startup money. $20 million purses. $4 million winners’ checks.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund showed it would spare nothing to make sure its controversial LIV Golf Series got a foothold.
Now the focus shifts to a possible women’s LIV Golf series and if a country that continues to discriminate against women will save some of that life-changing money for them.
CEO Greg Norman was asked by the Palm Beach Post in July if LIV Golf would venture into the women’s side.
“One hundred percent. Drop the mic on that,” he said. “We have discussed it internally, the opportunity is there.”
That comment got the attention of LPGA golfers. Some are sending out warning signals to the LPGA.
“I think a lot of women would go because it’s a big difference,” Spaniard Carlota Ciganda said this week from the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club. “If they are asking you to go to Saudi and they are going to pay you $5 million, what would you do? Would you stay here? Would you go and take the money?
“I understand both points. I don’t think it’s right or wrong. You have some political ideas but at the same time this is our job and if you have an opportunity somewhere else why not take advantage and go.”
Madelene Sagstrom, a six-year LPGA veteran from Sweden, has noted the rivalry LIV created with PGA Tour and the friction between those who defected from the tour and those who have remained loyal.
Sagstrom is not sure the LPGA Tour could survive a similar conflict.
“I think the LPGA will have to handle it differently than the PGA Tour,” Sagstrom said. “We’re a little bit more vulnerable I would say.”
Madelene Sagstrom of Sweden looks on during the AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield on Aug. 7, 2022, in Gullane, Scotland. (Photo by Octavio Passos/Getty Images)
Karrie Webb, the seven-time major winner who lives in Boynton Beach, told Golfweek in June she fears a LIV women’s league could “ruin women’s golf.” Webb grew up idolizing Norman, a fellow Aussie, but has posted her disappointment in her “childhood hero”.
Following the Palm Beach Post’s report in July, LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan told the London Times “she would engage in a conversation” with LIV if it means promoting women’s golf, but added a there are “a lot of factors to consider” before the LPGA would do business with LIV Golf.
Marcoux Samaan declined to speculate further when asked this…
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