LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman envisions following PGA Tour model, purchase golf courses

LIV Golf may soon have its own network of golf courses, similar to the Tournament Players Club (TPC) model employed by the PGA Tour.

The tour currently owns and operates 38 courses across the TPC network, including TPC Craig Ranch, the site of this week’s CJ Cup Byron Nelson. Many have hosted or continue to host PGA Tour events, some open to the public and others private.

The most famous of these courses, TPC Sawgrass, hosts The Players Championship each year. In 2020, TPC Harding Park in San Francisco hosted the first major championship of its kind. Collin Morikawa won the PGA Championship there.

Now, LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman revealed the following in an interview with Bloomberg. he wants to take this model with him Go on a tour organized by him.

“Man United owns the stadium. Indian Premier League, they own the stadium. NFL, they own the stadium,” Norman explained.

“Think of LIV owning all their own golf courses and hosting each team with a home venue. And now you can build around it. It’s not just a golf course. We’re going to bring in all the opportunities that the game of golf offers to our communities and regions: education, hospitality, real estate, merchandise, management, and more.”

LIV Golf currently has 13 teams with a 14-event schedule. In theory, each team could buy a golf course and host one event each year. Perhaps the Australian team Lippers GC, led by Cameron Smith, will take over his golf club at the Grange in Adelaide, which has hosted two of his LIV Golf’s most successful events in the past two years .

This year, Rippers GC won the playoffs there and received overwhelming support from the crowd, especially since it was in their home country.

Perhaps Stingers GC, the South African team led by Louis Oosthuizen who lost to Rippers GC last week, will buy property in their home country.

Photo by: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

Or another team could expand elsewhere.

Either way, LIV Golf shows no signs of slowing down, with Norman hoping to hold events in even more countries from 2025 onwards.

“The Philippines is very keen to get us there,” Norman added.

“Golf in the Philippines is doing very well. We are more than just a sport. We are a sport, an entertainment and a culture. So wherever we go in the world, we adjust what we have to offer from an entertainment perspective. doing.”

The Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore will be hosting the LIV Golf event this week. Brooks Koepka leads by three shots heading into the final round of the last event before the PGA Championship.

The circuit returns to the United States for two events, concluding with the U.S. Open in June.

“While our products are welcomed by many, there are some who try to stop us for the wrong reasons,” Norman added.

“They haven’t been able to maintain their position in the golf world. What we’ve done brilliantly is inject more capital into it. Golf is finally being seen as an asset class.”

Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through.Be sure to check it out @_PlayingThrough Cover more golf. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko In the same way.