LIV Golf officials like to refer to 2022 as its beta season and 2023 as its true first season.
However you want to differentiate between the two years so far, LIV Golf CEO and Commissioner Greg Norman hasn’t been nearly as vocal this year compared to last. That changed on Thursday when the two-time major champion was joined by Cam Smith and South Australia Premier Peter Malinauskas for a press conference ahead of LIV Golf Adelaide, the upstart circuit’s first event in Australia.
Norman doubled down on previous comments and claims that the rebranded LIV Golf League will be around for the long haul and that, despite ongoing legal struggles with both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, that the entity financially backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund wants to “coexist within the golf ecosystem.”
“I do hope there gets to a position where there is resolution to this, because the game of golf doesn’t need to suffer,” said Norman on Thursday at the Grange Golf Club, the site of his first professional win. “These guys don’t need to suffer.”
“PGA Tour has got a great tour. We’re happy for them. I’m happy for them. I grew up on the PGA Tour. So did Cam. We grew up playing on the European Tour,” said Norman. “I hope they exist and keep existing, but it’s their choice of what they want to do, and if they want to keep putting up road blocks, we’re not going to go anywhere. We’ve got a great product. We’ve got investment dollars there today, investment dollars into the future that will continue to be there because of guys like this.”
To the point of those investment dollars, LIV Golf is financially backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and has long been criticized as a way for the Kingdom to sportswash its controversial human rights record. Saudi Arabia has been accused of politically motivated killings, torture, forced disappearances and inhumane treatment of prisoners. Members of the royal family and Saudi government were accused of involvement in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist.
Asked about sportswashing on Wednesday, Bryson DeChambeau said he thought that topic was “kicked that to the curb” after answering questions on the subject last year. When asked why he’s never had a conversation with anyone from the PIF about Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, Norman rolled out the company line: Golf is a force for good.
“Because I’m the chairman and…
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