Is Greg Norman Going To Be Golf (Saudi's) Commissioner?
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Golf Digest Australia’s Brad Clifton is very excited about the rumored prospects of Greg Norman leading Golf Saudi’s theft of the Premier Golf League concept. That’s right, rumors are flying that the Shirtless Shark will be the, gulp, Commissioner of this new team venture taking aim at the PGA Tour.
Clifton writes:
One thing that is certain is the global outreach for such a platform will be equally as significant, if not more.
If the latest Norman rumours are indeed true, it’s the best news golf has received in a long time.
Has there been a more influential innovator in the world of golf over the past 40 years? It’s why ‘The Shark’ is the perfect person to help modernise the game at a time when the PGA Tour hasn’t exactly ticked all the boxes in its efforts to deliver a compelling product and give global golf and sport fans what they really want – the world’s best players competing against each other on a regular basis outside of the Majors and, crucially, outside of the United States.
Would this be a bad time to bring up the Shark Experience? You may recall the Shark’s epic tease a few years back:
“In the middle second quarter of next year, I’ll invite you guys down to my office,” he said. “We will tell you exactly how we’re going to break this cast iron that’s been wrapped around golf for so long. We’re going to shatter it. The institutions (USGA, R&A, PGA of America, PGA Tour) will eventually buy into it because they will have to buy into it. They won’t have a choice.”
Turns out, it was a golf cart that plays music.
Now Norman has apparently turned his focus to helping Golf Saudi in a grander fashion than his initial grifts of some course design work and appearances at their grow-the-game summits.
According to this story in Golf Digest Middle East—oh yes that’s not fiction—Norman has lauded the Saudis as “truly at the forefront” of grassroots development. Guess they liked the Shark Experience!
Time will tell what the Shirtless one’s role will be in the disruptor golf league, if and when it launches.
Meanwhile, more disturbing allegations regarding the Crown Prince were aired on 60 Minutes Sunday. Saad Aljabri, former number two in Saudi intelligence, says Mohammed bin Salman forced him out and is in exile, fearing for his life because he knows too much. Nice people.
