LIV Golf Tour: Golf Saudi boss will create own majors if "rebels" banned
Majed Al Sorour, the chief executive of Golf Saudi, has claimed LIV Golf will just create their own majors if their players are banned from the big four.
Majed Al Sorour, the chief executive of Golf Saudi and one of the driving forces behind LIV Golf, has sensationally claimed they will set up their own majors if their players are banned from participating in the big four events.
Al Sorour has given an interview to The New Yorker's Zach Helfand, where he declared he believes that the majors are currently taking sides with the PGA Tour.
Such a claim isn't too hard to believe given the public comments made by the chief executives of the governing bodies overseeing each major championship.
Related: LIV Golf's biggest earners so far
R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers backed up Tiger Woods' remarks before the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews, claiming that LIV Golf was "not in the best interests of the sport" as it "undermines the merit-based culture and spirit of open competition that makes golf so special".
Slumbers insisted that it wasn't on their agenda to ban players but admitted that the R&A will review exemptions and qualifying criteria going forward.
Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley, who has been accused in court documents of trying to persuade players not to join LIV Golf at The Masters, remained tight-lipped on the subject in his annual press conference.
Related: Cam Smith on his Masters future
Mike Whan, the chief executive of the USGA and PGA of America boss Seth Waugh have also provided ominous answers for the LIV players.
"I don't know what it'll look like next year. We don't think [LIV Golf] is good for the game and we are supportive of that ecosystem," Waugh said before the PGA Championship at Southern Hills which was won by Justin Thomas.
Related: Nine players who changed their mind about LIV Golf
Al Sorour is a businessman connected to the Saudi royal family and he reportedly led the bid to take professional golf to the Kingdom.
He was heavily involved in starting the Saudi International that used to be played on the European Tour and he works closely with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who is the governor of the Public Investment Fund, which is bankrolling the LIV series.
Al-Rumayyan, who also is the chairman of Premier League football club Newcastle United, teed it up with Phil Mickelson in the pro-am before their inaugural event at Centurion Club in June.
He was pressed over accusations of sportswashing. "We're not sure about [what] this is," he told the BBC's Dan Roan on 8 June.
It appears that Al Sorour and Al-Rumayyan have given LIV Golf chief executive Greg Norman an open cheque book to get the controversial series underway.
LIV have already spent just shy of $2bn. It is absolutely fair to say that at this point the landscape of professional golf has changed forever.
Next year, when LIV Golf will switchover to a league format, they will give out $405m in prize money.
There have been suggestions, too, about a possible "Super LIV" event with a prize purse of $100m but that is unsubstantiated.
"For now, the majors are siding with the Tour, and I don't know why," Sorour told The New Yorker ahead of the $50m LIV Golf Team Championship in Miami.
Asked how he would respond to LIV players being banned from the majors, he said: "If the majors decide not to have our players play? I will celebrate. I will create my own majors for my players.
"Honestly, I think all the tours are being run by guys who don't understand business."
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