LIV Golf commissioner Greg Norman has reportedly agreed a deal that will take breakaway tour players to India for the very first time.
Sky News reported on Tuesday that Norman has agreed to stage an International Series event DLG Golf & Country Club in Gurgaon.
The International Series is conducted alongside the Asian Tour, and the order of merit winner earns a place on the rival tour for the next season.
American John Catlin perhaps is next in line for the LIV Golf stripes for the 2025 season set to start in Riyadh next February.
LIV Golf have not specified their next calendar year schedule but 2025.
Four events have been approved All the other events are still tentative.
LIV events are planned for Riyadh and Adelaide in February and for Hong Kong and Singapore in March.
Sky News reported:
“Sky News has learnt that Greg Norman, the former two-time major-winner who now serves as commissioner and chief executive of LIV Golf, has reached the outline of a deal to stage an event at the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurgaon next February.
“Sources said the agreement, which has yet to be formally signed, would see the venue hosting a LIV International Series event featuring 148 international golfers alongside up to 16 LIV League golfers.”
The publication also reported the London-based firm, CTD Advisors, helped broker the new partnership with India.
The news comes a week after a report from Sports Business Journal suggested LIV have been attempting to find a replacement for Norman as commissioner.
Norman would stay with LIV, SBJ reported, but in a senior leadership role.
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark was targeted but negotiations did not progress.
Norman criticised by former PGA Tour boss.
Norman was also in the firing line of former PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman this week.
In an interview with SI’s Bob Harig, Beman explained what he believed that Norman got wrong in the prior two years, a period which experienced unprecedented disruption in the men’s game.
Beman said Norman players who defected from the PGA Tour were ‘sold a bill of goods’.
‘’I think he got it wrong that the superstars in his mind would control everything,” he told SI.
The fact is that a guy like Jack at the top of his game was the best player in the world and he played as few events as he could and the Tour thrived without him. It’s the same with Tiger.
It’s the organization and the volunteers and the events and the capacity to fundraise for big companies to fund it all.
And they are receiving great value for that. Love to have him it’s not Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods.”