Phil Mickelson and his status in the golf world seem to have had a big impact on many golfers, who have decided to retire from the Saudi Golf League. Greg Norman, CEO of LIV Golf Investments, emphasized the damage Mickelson had done to them with his statements.
“There’s no question [Mickelson’s comments] hurt,” Norman said, per ESPN. “It hurt a lot of aspects. It hurt the PGA Tour. It hurt us. It hurt the game of golf. It hurt Phil. So yeah, across all fronts.
It wasn’t just specifically to us. But it definitely created negative momentum against us”. There is a lot of talk about the government of Saudi Arabia and the rights that people have there. Mickelson recently made an interesting statement; “They killed [Washington Post columnist and U.S.
resident Jamal] Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights,” Mickelson said in an interview with Alan Shipnuck. “They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates”.
Greg Norman problems
There is a lot of pressure on Norman at the moment, and many believes that his goal is personal profit and nothing else. We will see if there will be more cancellations, but this kind of pressure from the PGA as well as important people in the world of golf, can lead to big problems for Norman.
“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,” he said.
“To this day, we still have players under contract and signed,” Norman added. “The ones who wanted to get out because of the pressure of the PGA Tour gave back their money and got out. Guys had money in their pockets”.
