Secretive Saudi golf plans could disrupt European and PGA Tours

The current tour model is bracing for disruption, with a minefield of legal challenges over player releases possible

Cameramen film Graeme McDowell as he celebrates winning the 2020 Saudi International at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club in the Red Sea resort of King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

It feels like exaggeration to suggest Saudi Arabia, buoyed by a takeover of Newcastle United, will ride this wave of sporting achievement and conquer golf. Saudi interest in this particular sport has been as longstanding as it has been depressingly unchallenged despite human rights abuses. There is now, however, sign of incremental progress.

At an extremely select media briefing in New York in the coming days, the Saudis will break with anything that has come before and expand – albeit to hand-picked outlets, of course — on their plans for the professional game’s ultimate disruption plan. Industry insiders believe Greg Norman will be confirmed as the public face of a series — possibly involving a dream of 10 events on the Asian Tour — as obvious, direct competition to the European and PGA Tours. Saudi Golf and the Asian Tour are already in alliance for the Saudi International in February. Norman is understood to have been busy on behalf of the Saudis in the corporate world.