Greg Norman has never been one for setting modest goals. At the tail end of 2019, for instance, the 64-year-old boldly declared that he wanted his longevity to extend well beyond his century.
“My dad is 93 this year, I’d like to hit 110,” stated Norman, who still triumphantly exhibits the kind of teeth, tan and tone that would make Adonis look like Worzel Gummidge.
In 1994, meanwhile, Norman’s sense of ambitious adventure led to him proposing the World Golf Tour; a concept which spooked the all-powerful PGA Tour so much, they just about sent in the military to crush any pockets of potential rebellion.
The tour’s high heid yins then took some of Norman’s notions and devised a series of events that became the World Golf Championship showpieces. Business, eh?
Chitter-chatter about a global golfing circuit for the elite has never really gone away with fresh proposals occasionally emerging from the shadows and being handed over in a brown envelope by a whispering bloke in an upturned collar and tilted hat. Or something like that.
The latest stab was provided the other day by the somewhat mysterious World Golf Group (WGG), a British-based organisation who outlined initial plans for a world tour a couple of years ago but have now detailed their ambitions in print. And they certainly don’t lack ambition.
The Premier Golf League (PGL), which would be launched as early as 2022, would feature 18 global tournaments featuring 48 of the best players in a 54-hole format, each boasting a $10m purse.
The organisers claim they can cover start-up costs of around $1bn – apparently there’s a war chest of Saudi Arabian oil money ready to be unleashed – and say they would establish a superior model for sponsors and TV networks while they jubilantly trumpet the fact that players could earn $50m each year for, essentially, a lot less work.
Some have said it’s a bold, welcome move which can give the global game a shot in the arm. Others have muttered that the World Golf Group has more brass neck than a colliery band.
Clearly, there are more questions than answers and the almost clandestine manner in which the proposal emerged certainly heightened the sense of narrow-eyed intrigue.
In the statement of intentions, the WGG said they wanted to “work with, rather than challenge existing tours”.
The PGA Tour would certainly not be keen on
some other entity muscling into their empire while the European Tour, which continues to lose its marquee names to the PGA circuit in an unwinnable battle with the cash-sodden US-based competition, wouldn’t fancy opening up another fighting front.
In essence, both tours could become feeder circuits for this new all-singing, all-dancing elite gravy train.
For the rank and file players it, presumably, would be akin to the Premier League breaking away from the rest of English football back in the 1990s and forging a rich-get-richer echelon while everyone else muddles on in the margins. You could say it’s a bit like that anyway.
Money talks in this game and if the PGL has it, then it will speak volumes.
Getting a certain Tiger Woods on board will be priceless. He is golf’s biggest draw and the difference between the PGL remaining a pipedream or becoming a reality.
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