Liv’s new CEO told AFP that the World of Golf would end up “would open again” and that the Saudi wear league has an important role in the growth of the world.
The director of American sports, Scott O’Neil, who heads the NBA and NHL teams in the past, took the reins of Greg Norman in January.
The period since has seen a wave of meetings between the PGA Tour, Liv Golf and their Saudi donors, the public investment fund (PIF), but still no agreement has concluded to bring together sport.
“I think LIV has an important place and place, and it’s very different from anyone to golf,” O’Neil told AFP in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the Liv Hong Kong tournament this week.
A few days ago, the PGA Tour player Rory McILroy said that an agreement to bring together the golf course did not feel closer.
O’Neil would not comment on arrest talks with the PGA Tour, but stressed that the former reception of the Golf Majors at the escaped series had thawed.
“I have the impression that the story generally moves in and around Liv and the Golf,” said O’Neil, who is the former CEO of the 76ers of Philadelphia of the NBA.
“It is probably the most underlined by each of the four majors by inviting VIV players and providing a way for VIV players to play in the majors, which, I think, is a big positive step in the right direction.”
But as he holds the multiple champions and the big liv champions of the game such as Jon Rahm, the current US Open Bryson Dechambeau, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson only manifest against the cream of the PGA Tour four times a year.
– “This day will come” –
There is no free movement of players between tours, and the only time when VIV players can currently face the best of the PGA Tour, it is these four majors.
O’Neil, however, is optimistic.
“Finally, I think golf will open again,” he told AFP.
“We would like the players’ movement. We would like our incredible stars to play worldwide.
“And I think this day will come. But in the meantime, let’s take advantage of majors.”
When asked if there was a place for the liv in the future integrated golf calendar, in the direction of the IPL to rotation of cricket money, O’Neil said that he had seen Liv as the ultimate in sport.
“We are really the golf formula,” he said. “I don’t think there is another parallel that you can find.”
Liv Golf, with its unique tournaments of 54 holes of hunting rifle that have individual and team competitions with musical explosions through the fairways, is in its fourth and third full season.
And O’Neil predicted that he had a brilliant future.
The league slogan has evolved this year from “Golf but stronger” to “Long Liv Golf” and O’Neil said that “is the essence of who we will become”.
“It is in a way our seal of approval, if you want, from our entry into the golf infrastructure around the world.”
For the moment, the CEO is happy to wait until the day when golf conflicts are resolved, and said it was focused on the opportunity of the future with Liv.
“I don’t spend too much time looking in the rear view mirror. I spend much more time traveling the windshield,” he said.
“We take great pleasure, and we think it is a humiliating honor, to be able to take these players at the four corners of the earth.
“Whether Riyadh, Adelaide, Hong Kong – We are now going to Singapore, and breathtaking in Miami, before Mexico, then Seoul, in Korea.
“Easily wherever we go, I sit in a way and I smile. I think that’s how golf should be.
“I think golf is growing all over the world, and I think we will play a role in this growth.”
DH / SCO
