How Saudi Arabia’s LIV Golf used money and brute force to buy a sport
nypost.comaccosted by a gaggle of security guards and physically removed.Angered and irritated, he texted the LIV Golf CEO and former world number one golfer, Greg Norman, writing: “Are you aware that I just got muscled out of Phil’s press conference by a couple of your goons?”Norman didn’t reply immediately but texted later, saying that he knew nothing about the incident — a claim that would soon be proven wrong.In his new book, “LIV and Let Die: The Inside Story of the War Between the PGA Tour and LIV GOLF” (Avid Reader Press), Shipnuck gives the inside story of how LIV ultimately ramrodded through ethical concerns and resistance using its huge financial firepower to all but buy an entire sport.“LIV is about many things besides golf, chief among them money, power and politics,” writes Shipnuck.
A few hours after the confrontation at Centurion, a damning video taken by another reporter surfaced online. It showed Greg Norman standing directly behind Shipnuck.“His face [was] contorted into a soulless scowl,” writes Shipnuck. “I’d had no idea he had been standing right there, a witness to the abuses of his security lackeys.”LIV was launched by Saudi Arabia’s government-backed PIF in late 2021 and it lured scores of top-name golfers away from the PGA Tour with the kind of bumper paydays they could only dream about.
Former world number one Dustin Johnson, for example, got a signing-on deal worth a reported $125 million while five-time major winner Brooks Koepka also bagged a $100 million contract.
Even lesser-known players like veteran journeyman Pat Perez received $10 million for joining LIV. Perez didn’t seem to care where the cash came from.“My money is in,” he said when he signed in June 2022. “I got it all.
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