Greg Norman Alleges Golfers Returned LIV Tour Appearance Money After Mickelson Comments

The Saudi-backed LIV Tour has made its fair share of headlines before its first tournament has teed off—which is still scheduled for June 9-11 at the Centurion Club in London (good tickets still available).

With only Robert Garrigus (ranked 1,035 in the world) committed to the field, Greg Norman, CEO of LIV Golf Investments, threw Phil Mickelson under the bus a bit in comments made to ESPN.

“There’s no question.”

Greg Norman tells @espn that Phil Mickelson’s comments caused several top-50 players to de-commit from Saudi-backed league: https://t.co/ySp6q4yDcX pic.twitter.com/l2d7bHRDvv

— Golf Central (@GolfCentral) May 2, 2022

Norman claimed that at least 30% of the top-50 golfers in the world committed to the play in LIV Tour events, which is more top golfers than a more recent report that stated 15 of the top 100 would play at the Centurion Club.

In February, negative comments from Mickelson about the regime in Saudi Arabia backing the tour caused several golfers to return their appearance fees, Norman claimed.

Norman told ESPN:

“Quite honestly, we were ready to launch on the Tuesday or Wednesday of [the PGA Tour’s Genesis Invitational in February]…We had enough players in our strength of field, or minimal viable product, ready to come on board. And when all of that happened, everybody got the jitters, and the PGA Tour threatened people with lifetime bans and stuff like that.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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It looks like the defending PGA Championship winner is trying hard to play in LIV Tour events, so Norman said that Mickelson would be welcome despite his comments, which included calling the Saudi Arabians “scary motherf—ers.”

With the tournament just about a month away and so many questions left to be answered, we will soon find out whether there will be some big-name players in the field or if these comments are the beginning of Mickelson being used as a scapegoat for a league that will struggle to get off the ground.

Cover Image Via Twitter