Amid ideas that he ought to be faraway from his place, Greg Norman’s position as CEO and commissioner of the LIV Golf League is at present being strengthened, which means extra autonomy in working the second-year circuit that introduced its 2023 schedule and can start play subsequent month.
Sports activities Illustrated has realized that Majed Al-Sorour, the managing director of LIV Golf, will go away that position however proceed as one in every of seven members of the LIV Golf board of administrators. Al-Sorour can be CEO of the Saudi Golf Federation.
Al-Sorour’s position with LIV Golf shouldn’t be being stuffed, which means extra energy for Norman, 67, the two-time major-championship winner who’s a member of the World Golf Corridor of Fame and whose management has been questioned by PGA Tour stars Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
The change for Norman and Al-Sorour was confirmed to SI by a LIV Golf official, and the league launched an announcement Monday:
“Majed Al-Sorour has been and can proceed to be a useful a part of LIV Golf, as he continues in his Board of Administrators capability. Majed’s position was pivotal in supporting the launch of LIV Golf. Because the enterprise transitions into its first full season With a brand new broadcast partnership in place, the time is true for the Managing Director position to transition and for Majed to focus efforts and a focus on different pursuits. We’re grateful for Majed’s exhausting work, contributions and getting LIV to this new stage.”
LIV Golf can be asserting its schedule, which is able to see a few alterations from beforehand launched variations of the 14-tournament slate. As beforehand introduced, the league will start with its first match Feb. 24 on the Mayakoba Golf Resort in Mexico.
Associated: See LIV Golf’s Full 2023 Schedule Right here
The late additions to the schedule are a season-ending workforce occasion in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and the Boston occasion—the place Dustin Johnson received in a playoff—being scrapped. There may even be a match the week previous to the Masters at Orange County Nationwide exterior of Orlando.
What was alleged to be the season-ending workforce occasion at Doral in September will now transfer to October as an everyday occasion, with the workforce championship to be performed at Royal Greens Golf & Nation Membership in Saudi Arabia in early November.
With the schedule now launched, the announcement final week of TV take care of the CW Community, and the pending revelation of the 48-player area and 12-team lineups for 2023, Al-Sorour’s day-to-day duties have been not obligatory. He’s already busy with different Saudi sports activities endeavors, such because the Newcastle United soccer membership, WWE and his position with the nation’s golf federation.
LIV Golf has already undergone a little bit of a restructuring after Atul Khosla, the chief working officer, left LIV Golf in December. He was changed by a trio of executives at Efficiency 54, a UK-based company that has been with LIV Golf because it shaped in 2021.
All report back to Norman, whose direct contact now will probably be Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Public Funding Fund. The PIF is Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, mentioned to be value some $620 billion, and the funding supply for LIV Golf.
If Woods and McIlroy had their means, Norman would have been eliminated. In latest months, each gamers mentioned they may see the potential for collaboration between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf if Norman have been not a part of the management.
“I feel Greg must go,” mentioned McIlroy, who additionally famous the litigation between the 2 events would additionally want to finish. “I feel he simply must exit stage left. He is made his mark of him, however I feel now’s the best time to type of say, look, you’ve got bought this factor off the bottom, however nobody goes to speak except there’s an grownup within the room that may truly attempt to mend fences.
Woods, who together with McIlroy helped the PGA Tour provide you with a plan that may see the highest gamers higher compensated this yr by designated occasions with excessive purses, mentioned related issues about Norman on the Hero World Problem.
“I feel Greg has to go, to start with, after which clearly litigation towards us after which our countersuit towards them, these would then need to be at a keep as effectively. So then we are able to speak, we are able to speak freely.”
Norman responded over the weekend on a Fox Information phase during which he mentioned Woods doesn’t know all of the info “as a result of clearly I am nonetheless right here” and that “he may be a little bit of a mouthpiece for the PGA Tour to try to get us to create, to try to get turmoil created internally inside LIV.”
Maybe there was some turmoil because it associated to the LIV Golf schedule, which at one level was alleged to be launched in late November. Enjoying an occasion once more in Saudi Arabia was not a part of the unique plan, nor was it extending the season into November.
LIV had beforehand introduced the Mayakoba occasion, together with one in Tucson, Arizona, in March and tournaments in Australia, Singapore, Spain, Oklahoma and West Virginia.
On Monday it introduced a match the weekend previous to the Masters (March 31–April 2) at Orange County Nationwide exterior of Orlando, in addition to others in New Jersey, Washington, DC, London, Chicago, Miami and Jeddah.
Norman was named CEO and commissioner of LIV Golf in November 2021. The winner of the 1986 and ’93 British Opens, Norman received 20 occasions on the PGA Tour and greater than 60 different worldwide titles.
However he lengthy had a contentious relationship with the PGA Tour over his capability to play the place he needed world wide with out having to get permission within the former of a launch. That’s in the end on the crux of the battle between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
2023 LIV Golf Schedule
Feb 24–26: El Camaleon Golf Membership, Playa Del Carmen, Mexico
March 17–19: The Gallery Golf Membership, Tucson, Ariz.
March 31–April 2: Orange County Nationwide (Crooked Cat), Orlando
April 21–23: The Grange Golf Membership, Adelaide, Australia
April 28–30: Sentosa Golf Membership (Serapong Course), Singapore
Might 12–14: Cedar Ridge Nation Membership, Damaged Arrow, Okla.
Might 26–28: Trump Nationwide Golf Membership, Washington, D.C.
June 30–July 2: Actual Membership Valderrama, Sotogrande, Spain
July 7–9: Centurion Membership, London
Aug 4–6: The Outdated White Course, White Sulfur Springs, W.Va
Aug 11–13: Trump Nationwide Golf Membership, Bedminster, NJ
Sept. 22–24: Wealthy Harvest Farms, Sugar Grove, Ailing.
Oct 20–22: Trump Nationwide Doral, Miami
Nov 3-5: Royal Greens Golf & Nation Membership, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
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