Greg Norman has rejected claims he’s declared war on the PGA Tour by launching a new 10-event series on the Asian Tour and admitted it would “be delinquent of me” not to provide hosting opportunities for his native Australia.

The World Golf Hall of Famer, who was last week named CEO of LIV Golf, a majority Saudi Arabian-funded entity that will pump $US200 million into the Asian Tour over the next 10 years, has been the subject of intense media scrutiny over his involvement in the new venture, that’s mission statement reads, “Our aim is to holistically improve the health of professional golf on a truly global scale.”

Speaking exclusively with Australian Golf Digest from his Florida home this morning, Norman wanted to put an end to speculation his latest venture was the first move in a concerted plot for revenge against the PGA Tour after it rejected his push for a world tour some 27 years ago.

“No, it’s not that way at all,” he said. “I can categorically say this is not a direct attack on the PGA Tour. It’s for the betterment of the game of golf, pure and simple.

“There’s been a lot of commentary about this being all about me getting even with the tour. This idea has been around for a long time.”

The former world No.1 has a long history of pushing a global tour that would serve as an alternative to the PGA Tour. He served as the driving force behind a proposed World Golf Tour in 1994 that failed to gain significant traction but did indirectly result in the creation of the World Golf Championships, which have been whittled from four events in recent years to just one this season.

While rumours continue to circulate that Norman has a secondary league – separate to the 10 new events on the Asian Tour – in planning, of which he will be appointed commissioner, the PGA Tour has taken a hard-line stance against a potential rival, with its commissioner Jay Monahan saying at a players meeting in May that any player who takes up membership with the new tour would risk suspension and losing his PGA Tour playing privileges. The tour’s creation of the $40 million Player Impact Program, a way to reward stars regardless of their on-course performance, was widely seen as a response to the Saudi-backed proposition.

The source of LIV Golf’s funding has been a hot topic of debate this week. The PIF, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia with estimated total assets of at least $500 billion, has funded a number of sporting events during the past half-decade or so, including marquee wrestling matches and tennis tournaments. It also recently bought Newcastle United Football Club in the English Premier League. However, its latest push into the world of golf hasn’t been welcomed by all, with some commentators labelling it an act of ‘sportswashing’, a way for the Saudi Arabian government to rebrand itself and distract attention from its much-publicised human rights record.

Greg Norman

“I’ve seen what’s been written and said in the media and I just don’t understand some of it,” Norman says. “There are dozens of wealth funds out there investing in sport because sport is an asset class.”

Meanwhile, the legendary Queenslander revealed Australia could be one of the major beneficiaries of the new 10-event series on the Asian Tour, and used Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket as an example of how things could pan out for golf.

“It would be delinquent of me, as the CEO of LIV Golf investments, not to give Australia an equal opportunity to host an event in some way, shape or form,” Norman says. “That’s not to say there won’t be a host of other stakeholders putting their hand up too. But there’s huge potential in Australia. I’m obviously very patriotic. My old coach, Charlie Earp, once told me that when I go away my biggest responsibility was the game of golf. My second responsibility was my country and my third was myself. You only have to go back over my history of coming home to support the Aussie tour as much as I possibly could to know how highly I regarded that notion – that’s the responsibility you have as a leading player.

“Take Kerry Packer, as an example. What Kerry did for cricket was just amazing. He gave players more opportunities to play and make money. What happened? The truest form of the game – Test cricket – held its values and remained the most sought-after format players wanted to play in. All Kerry did was enlarge the sandbox and gave the sport better opportunities. When you see that, in its most simplistic form, that’s what should and will happen with golf – we’ll give these guys a bigger sandbox they can all play in.”

Norman’s comments follow a report by AP News’ Doug Ferguson overnight that “the PGA Tour is contemplating a ‘global series’ in its autumn with big purses, no cuts and appearance money based on a player’s FedEx Cup standing”.

“Isn’t that their fiduciary responsibility, to be doing that every year?” Norman asks. “Shouldn’t that be the precedent they set, rather than being reactionary to somebody else’s proposal? I shake my head because I’m just so perplexed about it all. I’ve been involved in golf for 40-plus years, and I think I’ve come up with some pretty good ideas based off a few observations. They’re not ‘Greg Norman’s observations’, they’re simply observations the sport should be seeing for itself.

“If that story is indeed true then it’s great news that the PGA Tour is doing that, truly it is. It tells you that competition is incredibly important. It tells you that, without competition, you can’t be great. It tells you that maybe, just maybe, this whole LIV Golf Investments project is the competitor that’s strong enough to show the world that there are two avenues you can take [in professional golf]. Who knows, maybe there are three avenues or even four? I don’t care. All I know is, if you have a good, solid business plan and you can present it and execute it in the best interests of the game… hallelujah!” – additional reporting by Dan Rapaport