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The Centurion Club near London.
By Kent Gray
The Saudi golf league finally has a brand name, a start date, a substantive eight-event schedule and an eye-popping $255 million in prize money. Still, Wednesday’s announcement left as many questions as it provided answers, chiefly around who will play the LIV Golf Invitational Series and how and by whom the shiny new league will be broadcast.
Even known facts, like the launch event in June, remain clouded in intrigue.
The $25 million series opener is slated for The Centurion Club near London on June 9-11. That raised eyebrows with fans of the Asian Tour who had been looking forward to the second of the Asian Tour’s new and not to be confused ‘International Series’ events – at the very same venue and mooted to start just a day earlier on June 8.
The clash is not totally left field given the International Series is bankrolled to the tune of $300 million by LIV Golf Investments, the company also behind the LIV Golf Invitational Series announced overnight. The Asian Tour investment, over 10 years, guarantees LIV Golf access to Official World Golf Ranking points for its new league, a key lure as access to the game’s major championships and contract bonuses are pegged to a players world ranking.
At the time of press, The International Series London was still listed as a $2 million, 72-hole event on the Asian Tour website and scheduled for June 8-11. It remains to be seen if it will be played as such, shifted to a new date or morphed into one of the shortened, 54-hole LIV Golf Invitational Series events boasting a 48-player field, shotgun starts and no cut.
What LIV Golf Investments CEO and LIV Golf Invitational Series Commissioner Greg Norman can and has guaranteed is that the new series won’t clash with the game’s big legacy events – just about.
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LIV Golf Invitational Series 2022
June 9-11: Centurion Golf Club (London)
July 1-3: Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club (Portland)
July 29-31: Trump National Golf Club Bedminster (New Jersey)
Sept 2-4: The International (Boston)
Sept 16-18: Rich Harvest Farms (Chicago)
Oct 7-9: Stonehill (Bangkok)
Oct 14-16: Royal Greens Golf Club (Jeddah)
Oct 28-30: Team Championship (TBC)
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The London series opener critically concludes on the Saturday before the U.S. Open, allowing an extra day for players to travel to Brookline, Mass. for the third major of the year.
The fifth LIV Golf event in Chicago will also easily allow US and International team players to travel to Quail Hollow in North Carolina for the September 22-25 Presidents Cup.
With the PGA Tour’s season-ending and FedEx Cup deciding Tour Championships scheduled for Aug. 25-28, only the first three LIV Golf Invitational Series events clash with PGA Tour events: The $8.7 million RBC Canadian Open (June 9-12), the $7.1 million John Deere Classic (June 30-Jul. 3) and the $8.4 million Rocket Mortgage Classic (July 28-31).
The LIV Golf Invitational Series Team Championship does sit opposite the $10.5m WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai (Oct 28-31) although the World Golf Championship events are widely regarded as a declining commodity as golf’s turf war heats up.
The greater concern will perhaps be felt at DP World Tour headquarters in Wentworth given all eight LIV Golf Invitational Series events clash with tournaments on the old European Tour. It goes without saying that the $25 million LIV Golf purses, bolstered to $50 million for the Team Championship, will be far more fiscally appealing than the $2m Scandinavian Mixed (June 9-12), $6m Irish Open (June 30-July 3), €1.75m Hero Open, €3m Made In HimmerLand, €3m Italian Open (Sept. 15-18), €1.75m Open de Espana (Oct. 13-16), €3m Andalucia Masters (Oct. 6-9) and the WGC-HSBC Champions. At today’s exchange rates, the eight DP World Tour events equate to a combined $32.3 million – just a whisker more than the additional $30 million bonus pool LIV Golf is promising the top three players overall in the individual standings of the new Saudi league.
If OWGR points are confirmed for the LIV Golf Invitational Series, perhaps Norman’s conviction that the world’s biggest players will follow the money isn’t as unlikely as it seemed even a few days ago.
Greg Norman (Photo: Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour)
“Our events are truly additive to the world of golf,” Norman said in a statement. “We have done our best to create a schedule that allows players to play elsewhere, while still participating in our events. I believe players will increasingly make progress in achieving their right to play where they want. We will help in any way possible and will provide golfers with opportunities to achieve their full potential.”
Norman sent a memo to players on Tuesday pre-empting Wednesday’s announcement and has delivered on his promise of: “We are launching, and we will continue to drive this vision forward. We will not stop.”
“While we respect that some of you may have concerns, know that we will work tirelessly with you to alleviate them,” Norman said in the letter to players obtained by Golf Digest. “Our goal always will be to let you focus on your playing performance while benefiting from new opportunities, whenever you are ready for them.”
