Greg Hardwig reports from this week’s QBE Shootout on the latest related to Saudi Arabia’s attempted takeover of the pro game after Greg Norman spoke to assembled media. The LIV Golf Investments operation running the potential Saudi Golf League had named a new COO Thursday: Atul Khosla, who has bee the chief corporate development and brand officer for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
This gave the Shirtless Shark a chance to ride “C-suite” as only he could.
“Our C-suite (or major executive team) has been very, very special to say the least, and it’s a testament to our business model, it’s a testament to our commitment to the game of golf and our C-suite, which is deep and very experienced not only in sport, team sport, not only in business, but right across the board,” Norman said. “Our C-suite starting in London to where we’re going to be in West Palm Beach is solid. Really, it is a commitment by them of, like I said, believing in the product, believing in the business model and believing in the players.”
Three C-suites in so little time. Oh but why quit there?
“‘I’m very, very passionate about that,” he said. “I’m not going to lose focus on that at all. I stay finely tuned with my C-suite people on the same thing about our future and about how we want to get to certain milestones in our life and obviously for our investor.
“They’ve invested for a reason, they invest for a reason because they see golf and sport as an asset class now and you’ll see it all around the world, whether it’s in IPL cricket or whether it’s even the NFL, NBA, NHL, you see it in all different leagues, people invested in sport in general.”
Meanwhile Graeme McDowell suggested he was displeased at seeing his name “plastered all over the media like I’m a bad guy” for being one of eight listed as asking the PGA Tour for a Saudi International release. His interest was first revealed by Golfweek and McDowell was subsequently revealed as part of the tournament field list while his photo is used in the official tournament masthead.
“I’m on the list of guys that were given permission to ask for a release, and then it gets plastered all over the media like I’m a bad guy; I’m just doing what I was told to do, which was ask for a release,” he said. “Listen, it’s really up to Jay Monahan, however Jay wants us to handle the situation. I’m just going to wait and find out what Jay wants. First and foremost, I’m a PGA Tour player until further notice. That’s the bottom line.”
The Saudi International is scheduled to go up against the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am where many C-suite types turn up every year.