Live golf invitational announced yes. So it's finally there's been all this talk we touched on it a couple of episodes ago um about this whole kind of saudi golf league the sgl and greg norman was the ceo. And he was fronting it. And and what this meant for golf there was at the time um i think every goal from the well the top 50 had been approached with lucrative deals yeah. And a lot of them had ended up pledging their alliance to pj tour so it felt like from from the outset that this kind of sgl was dead. And buried and last week i think it was now it was announced by greg norman that live golf invitational as it will be known going forward it's not sgl that was just kind of a placeholder name that people put on it live golf invitational is coming to life going to be eight events i believe with the first one at um century centurion i've got a list okay. So talk me through it so i mean still very much i've just looked to even online now it's still very much being kind of branded as this kind of saudi-backed golf super league obviously that's kind of where the main money's coming from. And greg norman's kind of the pin-up boy for it and doing a lot of talking so um june 9 to 11th location london centurion golf club yes now that kind of makes sense because they've hosted like the aramco series there before et cetera et cetera. So it kind of probably makes sense while it's happening there a couple of weeks or just under a month later from july the 1st to the 3rd that's my birthday in portland pumpkin ridge golf club yep never heard of it i heard of it have you yeah end of july 29th to 21st new jersey trump national golf club that'd be interesting to see how that kind of goes down september 2nd to the 4th boston the international september middle of september in chicago at rich harvest farms rich harvest vapes quite fitting name. For this super leaf um october 79 bangkok at stone hill and then.
Finishing uh as you kind of probably would imagine it's in saudi arabia jeddah royal greens golf club and then.
The team championship i don't think the location has been set. For that yet which is a couple of weeks later well there's been actually greg norman has been on a couple of podcasts himself he was on the bunker podcast. And shout out to them guys did an amazing job interviewing him um. And he gave a lot more clarity on this so part of it excites me and part of it has left me not as excited. So the format i believe will be 54 whole events with no cut yes obviously there's this team element going still. But originally when this got rumored about it was this team element certainly with the premier golf league that we talked about a couple years ago it was it would have the same teams week. And weeks like franchises yeah like the f1 she'd always have a constructors. And uh individuals but now greg norman's position it that this isn't uh competitions the pj tour and the european the dp world tour that players can dip in. And out so i'm not quite sure that how the the group the the team one works let's just say adam scott first person i think off he decides to play one week. And then.
Doesn't yeah how's he definitely um well from what i understand a lot of these dates that i've just mentioned then.
Are very cleverly squeezed in between big tournaments. And botox so what he said he has said again this is all from the podcast i listened to that he doesn't want to go against mages he would never go against the huge team events i.e ryder cups president cups. And you also want to go against what he calls heritage events so like your players your serious pj tour events but naturally some of these are up again i think one's the canadian open. And other pga tour events like denmark and other stuff sorry european tour events so it will naturally i think that there's 45. Or 47 pj tour events a year so naturally it's going to go up again because there's one every week yeah exactly. And he's very confident that the pga tour cannot ban their players because they're independent contractors so i'm excited to see what it comes out like i am i'm also a little bit dubious in some regards because most of these big big names have come out. And said we are not playing. So rory's come out and said that dustin's quiet said that now i think even we could even say bryson said that a lot of them have said they're not going to play. So but are they not. But this is almost like changed again well it has. But think how strong they've been again. So invites like 250 golfers or something and waiting to hear back apparently a lot of the big names have got back in touch he says he claims i don't know um but he's also quite adamant this is here to stay this isn't just a one-year thing. So he's saying let's just say a guy who is 150th in the world wins one. And wins like two million dollars whatever is his incredible prize money. But it won't take long before the top players in the world start saying well that guy is nowhere near as good as me i've won 700 grand last week. And this guy's won two million i want a bit of that but we chat about this before offer it makes you wonder about how much these top top top pros are bothered about money like yes it's important. But when you're growing up playing golf to be the best at your golf club to get the lancashire team the county team whatever it might be so to win the club championship you don't do it to win 50 quid in your account. And buy some probably ones in the dear you win it for that pride and i think even at this top top level money's brilliant. But like rory said he's got enough money he only stays in three of his rooms in his house it's 20.. So i don't do you think it's enough this is it the lifestyle the only way i can see this being let's say the the saudi invitational that happens every year anyway think about the players that went. For that just for the money yeah because that's what they went. For really bryson brooks patrick reed uh even tony fee now more recently um like they aren't really going to play in that event unless it's. For money so i do still think it plays a huge part it's like let's say on the table as long as it's not interfering with with any of your majors. Or your big events if someone said right rick you can play in this event which is canadian open okay whatever it may be. And the purse for that is x amount. But there's 120 players in it okay. So the chance of you winning that it's fairly slim yeah into it really let's be honest on the other hand you can fly over to centurion in london you're only going to go against 48 golfers. So like less than half the field and the money is like three times more you're gonna be tempted at yeah you you have to be from it from a from any of these top players in the world it's more like it's a business decision now when you when it was more you tie into the league. And it's very big payout that's a different conversation because that's you're completely cutting yourself off from the other side of things if you decide to go down that route so this is a very interesting tactic that they've gone with because all before now there was no events there was no tangible almost an idea it felt like an idea. And to be honest i would never have imagined an event being seen this year as much as you said it i was like you can't you can't just pull out events from mid-air boom we'll pull out events from mid-air somehow exactly. And what i don't know if i just said this. Or not but what is also said is that even if this year let's say the first event you get the best ranked guy let's just say is thai it is 150th in the world. And the rest are kind of almost i don't say nobody's that's very disrespectful. But you know for the sake of nobodies um that's fine with them it's the first year it keeps calling it a startup it's a beta test year that it will carry on. And they're confident eventually the big guys will come over. But it's a startup with how many yeah i mean it's interesting i think as a a golfer as a kind of golf fan i'm definitely interested to see what this first event is like this feels more like a wgc now than it does a separate league breakaway league well there's also they asked him in the podcast again about what will it obviously be televised. And he said yes it will i think he said he was in talks with 11 broadcasters who they've signed ndas with. So i'm thinking obviously your sky is like you're amazon let's just let me just check my emails just in case they want to host it on the rickshaws.gov channel listen if it's going to be hosted on the channel let's have a talk um well that's that's. So it's it's very interesting where this goes um you're right there is money does play a big part in golf. But i do also think the best players want to play against the best players. And it's a little bit like and again no respect. But some of the major and tiger didn't play you almost felt like did it have an asterisk next.
To when somebody won a major without tiger. And not really but yeah. But you know if you're winning that event yes you've won loads of money. But if you're not playing as the best as a competitor you know apparently as well they're going to get world ranking points through the asian tour will sanction it. So there's a lot to take in again some great podcasts out there that interview him um but i still think like it's such a different plan to what it was like even two months ago well he was very adamant it's not a breakaway league. But it felt like to me and i know nothing but it felt like it initially was very much briefly of course it was yeah. And now it's almost like they're almost like exhibition matches well that's it really isn't it and actually one of the things i i'm kind of in in some ways i'm very much for this 54 holes and um shotgun start because it means it's so much easier to consume as a fan you can sit down with a four-hour window. And it's still gonna be shot and started apparently so um but one of the things that nick falder did a very interesting video we did like an eight-minute i knew you watched it as well like an eight-minute twitter video he sat down. And gave his opinion it was really quite cool. And he was very much. For the whole part of a cut and how at the players um it was um oh my god john around the port i think to make the cutting guard. And he fist pumped whatever he said even the world number one wants to make the cut. And that it's another kind of sub narrative to the story which i suppose it's if you're a hardcore viewer of golf the cut line isn't oh you've got your favorite player you've got money on somebody the cut is a another narrative without a cut is it a bit mickey mouse it's two is looking at it i guess isn't that there's the one way that you know if you're going to watch that event. And you're going on the i don't know yeah whatever date finishes on you'll go in that day your favorite player will be playing. And the thing i thought i thought was quite weird this is a very this is something that's much further down the line if it's a 54 hole event shotgun start then.
Obviously the winner will finish at the same time that last place finishes. For example how would that be with since the grandstand because normally the 18th hole has the biggest grand stand or one of the biggest grand stands because that's where the winner will eventually win unless it goes to a playoff. Or whatever it might be but what happens if the winner holds a pot and they finish on the seventh hole they're probably more likely to finish on that do you think they'll still start them on one because yeah the winner is going to come either on 16 17 18. Or well you think. So 15th 16th 17th or 18th green real real a lot of golf courses i don't have great i mean if you think about i know it's in andrews. For example the 16th green wouldn't really have a very good grand standard here as far as i'm thinking what would it no oh 16 does you know what i'd like to see weirdly what would be really cool is if it was almost like a 52 hole tournament. And the last four holes was like just the top yeah ten. Or whatever but that's there will be a point that i imagine where somebody will win on like whole thirteen. Or whatever it might be and there's not much i don't know yeah how that works out. But it's uh news we're going to talk about it it's exciting um yeah who knows it's very i mean faldo like say in his twitter um post i don't think father. And norman are particularly good friends. But like it it's very interesting hearing all these different sides the pros the cons the the back and forth it's like where the money's coming from who's kind of backing it how they're going to make it happen if they've not got the best players in the world i think i will tell what was funny though as well is is they asked him about the saudi money. And how he feels about that or whatever and he kind of turned it around and said well you know the european tour have events in saudi. And i looked this thing on linebacker obviously newcastle you know being bought by saudis and stuff there's a lot of businesses that are huge businesses that have obviously that saudi investment. And stuff and it depends how you look at it.
