Sports
THE R&A banned Greg Norman from its Champions Dinner because it did not want the divisive new LIV Golf series to overshadow the 150th Open Championship.
Four days later that strategy was abandoned as the organisation’s chief executive Martin Slumbers opened his eve-of-championship news conference by addressing the elephant in the room unprompted.
Before a question could be asked on Wednesday, Slumbers said he wanted to “address the disruption that men’s professional golf is facing”.
It was a curious start to the R&A’s traditional news conference in its biggest week of the year, given it had chosen to not invite two-time Open champion Norman, who fronts LIV Golf, to St Andrews this week in an effort “to ensure the focus remains on celebrating the Championship and its heritage”.
Norman, who missed both Monday’s champions’ four-hole exhibition and Tuesday’s dinner, called the decision “petty”, although Slumbers pointed out “Greg hasn’t been here since 2010. He didn’t come in 2015. In fact, it’s many years since he’s even been to The Open”.
Many of the top players – Tiger Woods included – teeing it up on the Old Course this week have been asked for their opinion on the series and been happy to give one.
So even before Slumbers spoke, LIV Golf was on the agenda in this landmark week for the championship. That may explain why the R&A chief decided the focus had already at least partially been taken from the 150th Open and why he offered strident views on the fledgling circuit.
Without once using the name of the organisation, Slumbers said the $2bn Saudi Arabian-funded start-up was “not in the best long-term interests” of golf.
“The existing golf ecosystem has successfully provided stable pathways for golfers to enter the sport and develop and realise their full potential,” he continued.
“Professional golfers are entitled to choose where they want to play and to accept the prize money that’s offered to them. I have absolutely no issue with that at all.
“But there is no such thing as a free lunch. I believe the model we’ve seen at Centurion and Pumpkin Ridge [the host venues for the first two events] is not in the best long-term interests of the sport as a whole and is entirely driven by money.
“We believe it undermines the merit-based culture and the spirit of open competition that makes golf so special.
“The continued commentary that this is about growing the game is just not credible and if anything, is harming the perception of our sport which we are working so hard to improve.
“We believe the game needs to focus on increasing participation, achieving greater diversity, and making sure that golf is truly open to all, rather than this narrow debate involving a small number of players.”
Major champions such as Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Louis Oosthuizen and Sergio Garcia are among the players who have signed up to join the LIV Series, which is running eight invitational events this year with a total prize fund of £200m.
They are all playing at St Andrews this week after the R&A said it would not exclude LIV Golf players who had already qualified from playing. That followed a similar ruling made by the United States Golf Association before the US Open.
The PGA Tour has chosen to suspend its members who have joined LIV, while the European-based DP World Tour handed out £100,000 fines to its players and banned them from last week’s Scottish Open – a move which Ian Poulter, among others, managed to reverse.
Slumbers says banning players from The Open is “not on our agenda” but he did say the R&A “will review our exemptions and qualifications criteria”.
“We will hold totally true to being Open to anybody, but we will look at whether it is an exemption or through qualification.”
Under current rules, of the aforementioned sextet, Mickelson and Oosthuizen as former Open champions are exempt from qualifying until they are 60.
Winners of the other three men’s majors – the Masters, US Open and US PGA Championship – gain exemptions to The Open for five years – so 2020 US Open champion DeChambeau, under current rules, is eligible to play in The Open until 2025.
However, those players who rely on world ranking status to get into a major could be hampered given LIV Golf events do not attract Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points.
The OWGR confirmed on Tuesday it had received an application from LIV Golf to be included in the ranking. In a statement, it said: “Examination of the application will now commence.” It is a process expected to take months.
The LIV Series is bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which put in an initial $250m (£200m) of prize money for this year but has pledged a further $2bn to turn the invitational series into a full league.
Each 54-hole event features 48 players and record prize money of $25m, with the player finishing last guaranteed $120,000.
In contrast, the prize pot at this week’s Open is £11.2m, an increase of 22% from last year, with the winner collecting £2m.
When asked about the prospect of one of the 24 LIV players in the field winning The Open, Slumbers, who would present them with the Claret Jug said: “Whoever wins on Sunday is going to have their name carved in history and I’ll welcome them on to the 18th green.
“This is a golf tournament. The Open is about having the best players in the world playing, and I want to see who shoots the lowest score come Sunday night.”
BBC SPORT.
A.I
Tags: Greg Norman
