Tiger Woods turned down $800 million offer to join the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series
Norman, 67, told Fox News that LIV had tried hard to recruit Woods, the 15-time major winner because he is a “needle mover”
Golf legend Tiger Woods has turned down an $800 million offer to join the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series.
Major winners Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau are among the players to have defected from the PGA Tour to join the series.
Henrik Stenson was stripped of the European Ryder Cup captaincy for joining the rebel tour and won his first event at the Bedminster course in New Jersey, owned by Donald Trump, on Sunday. Stenson, 46, took home $4 million for that victory, and it is thought he was paid a signing fee of $50 million (about £41 million).
Norman, 67, told Fox News that LIV had tried hard to recruit Woods, the 15-time major winner because he is a “needle mover”.
Woods — who according to Forbes, is the third sportsman to become a billionaire after the basketball players Michael Jordan and LeBron James — refused the offer.
“That number [between $700 and $800 million] was out there before I became CEO,” Norman said. “Tiger is a needle-mover, right? So of course you’ve got to look at the best of the best. That number is somewhere in that neighbourhood. They had originally approached Tiger before I became CEO.”
Woods, 46, has been critical of the LIV series and defended the decision by the R&A to exclude Norman, a two-times winner, from the celebrations for the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews last month. “Greg has done some things that I don’t think is in the best interest of our game,” Woods said.
Norman also continued his criticism of the PGA Tour, which he described as a “monopoly”. “They’ll use whatever leverage point they can to shut us down,” he said. “They’re not going to shut us down because the product speaks for itself.
“That blows my mind [criticism about players joining LIV]. The PGA Tour has about 27 sponsors, I think, who do 40-plus billion dollars’ worth of business on an annual basis in Saudi Arabia.
“Why doesn’t the PGA Tour call the CEO of those organisations (and say), ‘I’m sorry we can’t do business with you because you’re doing business with Saudi Arabia?’ Why are they picking on the professional golfers?”
