The PGA Tour has denied players such as Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood the permission to play in next month’s first $25million Saudi rebel circuit event in England.
The US circuit made the announcement late on Tuesday night, just before its deadline to inform up to 30-plus members who had sought clearance to appear in the LIV Golf Invitational opener in St Albans in four weeks’ time.
It is fair to say the judgement came as a surprise, although whispers had gained volume that the PGA Tour would signal the strength of the “strategic alliance” it signed in 2020 with the DP World Tour – formerly the European Tour – and set a precedent.
What follows next is almost certainly a legal battle. Greg Norman, the chief executive of the LIV series, spoke before the announcement, saying he had talked to players who had registered to play at the Centurion Club and who had told him they would play regardless.
There was no indication on the brief letter to players of what the punishment would amount for anyone who does ignore the edict.
The Saudi saga has been running for at least two years and Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour’s commissioner, has previously threatened to issue any lifetime bans to any pro joining a rival circuit which the Tour perceived as an existential threat.
The LIV series has emphatically now been placed in this category and civil war in the sport awaits.
The general feeling in the locker room has been that the Saudis will welcome a legal battle, as they believe the restraint of trade laws would rule in their favour, particularly as the PGA Tour has the status of a charitable foundation.
However, it was also thought that Monahan would keep his powder dry players submitted forms to play in the second LIV event, which takes place on US soil in Portland at the beginning of July.
However in a move which will surely relieve and comfort Wentworth HQ – which was still in the process of deciding on how to act with the 40-plus release requests it has received for Centurion – the matter has been brought to a head.
Norman is due to host a press conference at the Centurion on Wednesday and his response will be fascinating. Will he come out fighting and declare that he is about to unleash the lawyers?
Certainly he arrived in London on Tuesday in bullish mood, insisting that he “does not answer” to Saudi crown prince Mohammed ni Slaman and saying that the Kingdom should “own up” to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and “talk about it”.
However, the Australian also revealed that the Saudi Public Investment Fund has pledged $2m in “extra funding” over the next three years to establish a breakaway global league.
While the increase in finances will cause added alarm in the professional male game’s corridors of power, the claim that LIV Golf Investments is “independent” is bound to cause many eyeballs to roll.
“They’re not my bosses,” Norman, 67, told Sky Sports. “We [LIV Golf] are independent. I do not answer to Saudi Arabia. I can categorically tell you, that’s not the case. I do not answer to MBS.”
When asked if he understands why there are concerns about the funding emerging from “a brutal dictatorship”, Norman replied: “One hundred percent – that was reprehensible what happened to Khashoggi [the journalist and US citizen who was murdered and chopped up] right? Own up to it, talk about it. But we go back into Saudi Arabia and they’re making a cultural change. They don’t want to have that stigma,”
Since being named as LIV’s chief executive last November, Norman has consistently dismissed the charges of “sportswashing”.
Norman is clearly attempting to distance the series from his accusations of laundering the Kingdom’s reputation. “This is Greg talking – I’m not talking on behalf of the [Saudi] government or anybody,” he said. “I’m talking on behalf of my true belief, my passion. And when was the last time somebody wanted to invest $2billion into the game of golf?”
The winner at the Centurion will collect $4million, with last place in the 48-man field receiving $120,000. LIV plans 10 events in 2023 followed by “a full season” of 14 events in 2024 and 2025. Centurion, like the other seven events in the series, being classed by Norman as “baiter tournaments”, aiming to lure the big names.
However, Norman claimed there will be “six members of the world’s top 50, 19 of the top 100 and 36 of the top 150” in Hertfordshire. Whether that now holds true remains to be seen.