In a story written by Australian Golf Digest’s Brad Clifton and published Monday, Norman himself even revealed whom they are flirting with.
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“We’ve been trying to get Hideki Matsuyama,” the commissioner of the Saudi-backed series told Clifton.
“I don’t mind admitting that.”
The interest has been there for a while.
According to the New York Post, Matsuyama had turned down a nine-figure deal to join the league in August of 2022, after the PGA Tour’s Tour Championship. At that time, six other pros — Cameron Smith, Joaquin Niemann, Harold Varner III, Marc Leishman, Anirban Lahiri and Cameron Tringale — had left the PGA Tour for LIV, then in its first season.
About a month later, at the Presidents Cup, Matsuyama admitted to GOLF.com that he had been approached by LIV. Through a translator, Matsuyama gave a six-word answer to explain why he was sticking with the PGA Tour.
“Simply this is where I belong,” he said.
In the same interview, a reporter also asked Matsuyama if he would be interested in playing a PGA Tour-LIV Golf team event, should one ever come together. His answer again was short.
“I can’t decide something like that because there’s nothing specific about it,” he said through the translator.
But apparently, the conversations have not stopped, though there had been a pause between LIV and the PGA Tour poaching each other’s players following a proposed funding deal between the Tour and the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, which funds LIV. That proposal, announced last June, continues to be negotiated, but a non-solicitation clause from the agreement has since been removed.
From Norman.
“When Hideki won [the Genesis Invitational] in L.A., what’s the first thing I did?” Norman told Australian Golf Digest’s Clifton.
“I said, ‘Congratulations, Hideki. I’m proud of you, mate.’”
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