LIV Tour Australia: Greg Norman reveals famous course rejected hosting tournament

Greg Norman is in discussions to bring his LIV golf tour Down Under but revealed one famous course has already rejected hosting the Saudi-backed rebel league.

Cameron Smith tees off an LIV Tour event.

State governments are putting taxpayers’ money on the table to land a tournament in the controversial Saudi-backed LIV Golf league as Greg Norman reveals he is no longer willing to negotiate with the PGA Tour.

Australian golf legend Norman, the LIV chief executive, has already held talks with state ministers in his search for a course to host an event as soon as April next year.

In an exclusive interview, when asked if governments were offering money to lure a tournament, Norman said: “Yeah, definitely conversations have been had. Negotiations will probably pick up here in the next week.”

“There’s been a lot of interest from state governments all the way down to golf clubs,” he said.

The rebel league has driven a wedge in the sport, with top players including Australia’s world No. 2 Cameron Smith defecting despite warnings that LIV is a “sports-washing” vehicle for the Saudi Arabian regime.

Greg Norman waiting on the 18th green before the start of an LIV playoff.

Asked about that criticism and the presence of demonstrators at LIV’s last tournament in Boston, Norman said: “I don’t even pay attention to that, to be honest with you.”

“All I can tell you is I’m here for the game of golf … I focus on building the best league we can,” he said.

From next year, LIV will run a 14-event global tour, with courses in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria believed to be in the running to host the Australian event.

Norman refused to reveal which state ministers he had spoken to, saying it was “best to keep those confidential for now”.

But he said his team had visited at least two dozen courses to scout potential locations, and had only been rejected by Royal Sydney.

“We’ve been to all the prime states that love to host sporting events,” he said.

“The interest in Australia is extremely high.”

Norman said he expected a deal to lock in the Australian event would be done this month, with plans to move the tournament around every couple of years to enable more fans to attend.

Greg Norman’s LIV Golf has changed the face of world golf.

The LIV format includes a team competition with 12 squads that will eventually be sold off as individual franchises. Norman said his “ultimate dream” when he took charge of LIV was creating an Australian team, which Smith is now leading.

From next year, Norman said the four-player teams would be wearing the same uniforms, and that Smith and other captains would choose new names for their squads.

“Something that many people are overlooking is the value of the franchises,” he said.

“When you look at the value of other leagues around the world, whether it’s IPL or just look at what Kerry Packer did for cricket … The opportunity is here now for golf.”

Greg Norman is no longer willing to negotiate with the PGA Tour over his rebel LIV golf league, declaring he has given up trying to work with the sport’s traditional powerbrokers.

The LIV chief executive has also warned the world golf ranking system may collapse if those in charge refuse to grant points to players in LIV events, effectively locking them out of major championships and the Olympics.

In recent months, the Australian golfing great has offered to meet with PGA bosses about the LIV competition he is now running, but they have declined while reforming their tour to hang on to leading players.

Norman rejected the label of LIV as a “breakaway” league, saying the “business model from day one was always built around being inclusive”.

Greg Norman is in talks to bring the LIV Tour down under.

“It was always an additive to all tours,” he said.

“This notion we’re trying to destroy tours is not true. The PGA Tour is trying to destroy us, it’s as simple as that. But the PGA Tour has not sat down and had a conversation with myself or any of my investors.”

“That’s why we are where we are today. We tried awfully hard, I know I did personally for the past year … When we knew we were never going to hear from them, we just decided to go.”

“We have no interest in sitting down with them to be honest with you, because our product is working.”

Norman called on those in charge of golf’s four major championships to reject any pressure from the PGA Tour to ban LIV-contracted players such as Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka.

“The majors are independent … They should be Switzerland,” he said.

He said he was hopeful Official World Golf Ranking chairman Peter Dawson would “make the right decision for the right reasons” by the end of the year and allow players to collect points from LIV events.

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“You look at all the other tours in the world that have OWGR points and LIV doesn’t with the quality and strength of our field – it really makes OWGR obsolete and it may even fold if they refuse to give LIV Golf the points,” Norman said.

Smith, said upon defecting to LIV last month that it was “a little bit unfair” that players were denied world ranking points.

He has a five-year exemption to the majors as a result of his British Open win.