There is a silver lining for Australian golf fans who are sitting back and watching how this schism in professional golf plays out over the coming days and weeks: a representative from LIV Golf is set to touch down in Australia within the next few months, tasked with finding a course suitable to host its star recruits for a tournament Down Under when the series expands next year.
Sources close to the new rival league have told Australian Golf Digest that April, 2023 is being looked at as a month in which an LIV Golf tournament could be held in Australia.
Obviously, it will need to take place a considerable time before or after the Masters at Augusta National (April 6-9). But April is an attractive month when one considers the weather is ideal, courses are in typically great condition and that there is a buzz among fans for the Majors season to kick off in the US.
Australian Golf Digest can reveal Sydney is being explored as a host city, rather than the previously reported Melbourne, given the latter has a strong association with the PGA Tour. Melbourne will host the 2028 and 2040 Presidents Cups, although its organiser, the PGA Tour, is still in negotiations with the Victorian government as to where on the Sandbelt the biennial teams event will take place.
Sources have told us LIV Golf is eyeing Sydney as a frontier it can move in on when the rival tour grows from eight events to 14 for the second series. LIV Golf is spearheaded by former world No.1 Greg Norman and financed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
It’s welcome news for Aussie golf fans whose domestic heroes have found it difficult to return to their homeland for the summer of golf during the past few years due to a combination of the PGA Tour’s wraparound schedule and the country’s COVID-19 pandemic border restrictions.
The rival tour’s source of funding remains a point of controversy for many, given Saudi Arabia’s record of human rights atrocities, but there is a good chance Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and other LIV players could be teeing it up Down Under within a year.
The thought of world class golfers in our backyard gets more exciting when coupled with the potential for the PGA Tour to host a $US20 million elite tournament on our shores. On Wednesday, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan announced a new-look schedule that will see take three $US20 million limited-field events overseas. Those three no-cut events – which will draw their fields from the top 50 on the previous season’s FedExCup standings and top performers from the fall series – are set to take place in Asia, the Middle East and Europe. It is believed the Asia event will rotate among several countries including Australia.
Monahan said the PGA Tour’s policy board and the Player Advisory Council would “consider several different iterations of what that will be (and) in the coming months, we’ll finalise that.”
These latest revelations follow LIV Golf’s announcement of its 48-man field for next week’s invitational at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club outside of Portland, Oregon. The event will again be a 54-hole, no-cut affair and will feature the debuts of Koepka, DeChambeau, Reed, Abraham Ancer and Pat Perez.
“The response after one event has been overwhelming,” says LIV Commissioner Greg Norman. “Free agency has officially come to golf. I’m proud of this field and our entire team that is committed to creating a new and exciting future for this sport.”
The total purse for Portland is $US25 million, as it was in London, where Charl Schwartzel captured the individual title, along with being a part of the team winners, and earned $US4.75 million.
