Greg Norman confirms Saudi-backed Golf Super League will receive additional $2 billion in funding

Greg Norman has revealed he received an additional $2 billion in funding from Saudi Arabia to advance the LIV Golf Super League.

The controversial plan to create a big-money contender for the PGA and European Tours has had a seismic effect on golf, but it certainly doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.

LIV Golf has created eight 48-hole events for 2022, each with a $25 million prize pool, and they plan to expand that to 10 in 2023 and 14 from 2024.

The first is scheduled for the Centurion Club in the UK in June, with Phil Mickelson among those requesting release from the PGA Tour to play there.

“We just got approval to launch our calendar in 2023, 24 and 25,” Norman told the BBC. “We’re looking way beyond that too. We’re looking at decades.

“We have two billion dollars to support that, so we have additional funds in place. Twenty-two and 23 are our fishing years.

“Of course we had to pivot because there were obstacles in our path with a few institutions – the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour – but we pivoted brilliantly.

“We pivoted on the fact that we did invites and these will be our start-ups.”

The main issue for LIV Golf has been attracting the biggest names, with many worried about the human rights record of Saudi backers and unwilling to fall for accusations of sportwashing.

Norman, however, thinks players are slowly starting to come back.

“We have 19 of the top 100 players committed to Centurion,” Norman said.

“We have five of the top 50, a success rate that a lot of people didn’t think they could achieve.”

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