LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman envisions following PGA Tour model, purchase golf courses

LIV Golf may soon have its own network of golf courses, similar to the Tournament Players Club (TPC) model employed by the PGA Tour.

The tour currently owns and operates 38 courses across its TPC network, with one of them—TPC Craig Ranch—playing host to this week’s CJ Cup Byron Nelson. Many have or continue to host PGA Tour events, some open to the public while others are private.

TPC Sawgrass, the most famous of these courses, hosts The Players Championship every year. In 2020, TPC Harding Park in San Francisco became the first of its kind to host a major championship. Collin Morikawa won the PGA Championship there.

Now, LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman, in an interview with Bloomberg, revealed he wants to bring this model to the tour he runs.

“Man United owns their stadium. Indian Premier League, they own their stadiums. NFL, they own their stadiums,” Norman explained.

“Think about LIV owning all its own golf courses, each team having a home venue and hosting. And now you can build out around that. It’s not just a golf course. You bring in education, hospitality, real estate, merchandise, management, and all these other different opportunities that the game of golf has to deliver to a community or to a region. We are going to be doing that.”

LIV Golf currently has 13 teams and employs a 14-event schedule. Theoretically, each team could purchase a golf course and host one event each year. Perhaps Rippers GC, an all-Australian squad led by Cameron Smith, could buy The Grange Golf Club in Adelaide, which has hosted LIV Golf’s two most successful events over the past two years.

This year, Rippers GC prevailed in a playoff there, and given that they competed in their native countries, the crowd gave them overwhelming support.

Maybe Stingers GC, Louis Oosthuizen’s South African team that lost to Rippers GC last week, purchases property in their native country.

Photo by Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

Or perhaps another team expands somewhere else.

At any rate, LIV Golf has no sign of slowing down, as Norman hopes to bring events to even more countries in 2025 and beyond.

“The Philippines are very keen to get us there,” Norman added.

“Golf in the Philippines is doing very well. We are not just sports; we’re sports, entertainment, and culture. So no matter where we go in the world, we adjust what we need to deliver from an entertainment standpoint.”

Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore is hosting a LIV Golf event this week. Brooks Koepka leads by three shots, heading into the final round of his final event before the PGA Championship.

The circuit returns to the United States for two events, bookending the U.S. Open in June.

“Our product is received with open arms by many, but a few want to try and stop us for all the wrong reasons,” Norman added.

“They haven’t been able to sustain their position in the game of golf. What we have done brilliantly is inject more capital. Golf is finally looked upon as an asset class.”

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.