Hall of Fame golfer Greg Norman said on Saturday that he was “disappointed” in the PGA Tour for suspending golfers for joining the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series.
After explaining his decision to lead the charge on creating the league, Norman said the PGA’s “hypocrisy” was “deafening.”
“[G]olf is a force for good,” Norman outlined on Fox News Channel’s “One Nation.” “And to be honest with you, what I’ve seen in Saudi Arabia, the European PGA Tour since 2019 had a golf tournament, the Saudi International, that’s still in existence since 2019. And during that Saudi International, there were PGA Tour players who were given rights and waivers to go play there. So, to me, if golf is good for the world, golf is good for Saudi, and you’re seeing that growth internally there — it’s extremely impressive.”
He continued, “And when you look at the PIF and what they’ve done with other direct and indirect investments around the world, well, I would imagine there’s a lot of consumers out there and people watching this show who’ve been the benefactors of those investments.”
Norman was asked about the backlash the LIV tour has received.
“[L]ook, I’m disappointed people go down that path, quite honestly,” he replied. “Look, if they want to look at it in a prism, then why does the PGA Tour have 23 sponsors doing 40-plus billion dollars worth of business with Saudi Arabia? Why is it OK for the sponsors?”
“Will [PGA Tour commissioner] Jay Monahan go to each and every one of those CEOs of the 23 companies that are investing into Saudi Arabia and suspend them and ban them? The hypocrisy in all this — it’s so loud, it’s deafening, Brian.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.