American golf star Tiger Woods has turned down an offer of $700 million to $800 million to play in a Saudi-funded “Live Golf” tournament.
The owner of 15 major championships has always declared his opposition to this league, which threatens to divide golf, and has accused Saudi Arabia of doing a “sports wash”.
During a Fox News interview with Tucker Carlson, former Australian world champion Greg Norman was asked if it was true that the American golf legend received an offer of roughly “700 million, 800 million or one billion dollars” to join the team. separatist league.
Tiger Woods turned down an offer, which according to Greg Norman was “somewhere in the area” of between $700 million and $800 million, to take part in the Saudi Arabia-funded LIV Golf series. https://t.co/i0SGyDqDmd
— Associated Press (@AP) August 2, 2022
“That number was there before I became CEO, so that number was there, yes,” said Norman, a former world number one and two major world champions, a southpaw genius who is the second most powerful player in last 20 matches. years after Woods.
“Look, Tiger is a powerful person, isn’t he? So of course you will be looking for the absolute best. They originally called Tiger before I became CEO, so yes, that number is out there somewhere.”
Woods, 46, has repeatedly stressed his commitment to professional BGA tournaments and has said he is not going to follow in the footsteps of other players such as Americans Phil Mickelson, Brysion DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Spaniard Sergio Garcia and jump into the ship of a new league.
“I don’t agree with that,” Woods said ahead of the British Open at St Andrews last month, when asked about his fellow pros who have succumbed to the temptation to join the lucrative but controversial league.
“I think what they did was to turn their backs on what allowed them to take their positions. Who knows what will happen in the near future with world ranking points, criteria for participation in major tournaments?
“Some of these players may not get a chance to play in major tournaments. It’s possible. We don’t know for sure yet.”
The young and controversial league saw initial success. Despite fierce opposition from the American and European championships and their refusal to allow their players to participate, LIV Golf attracted 16 of the top 100 players.
In total, this league brought together 48 dissident players, inevitably tempted by over $200 million in excessive financial prizes, distributed across 8 tournaments around the world, one in Jeddah on October 16, and in a unique format for three days without interruption.
For the first round, scheduled at the Centurion Club in St Albans, north London, and like the rest of the rounds, €23m will be distributed, more than double each of the four Grand Slams. There is not a single MLS event that offers this amount of prize money.
Source: AFP