Tiger Woods was offered a package worth between $700million and $800m to compete in the LIV Golf Invitational Series, according to the competition's chief executive Greg Norman.
Woods, a 15-time major winner, has been an advocate for the PGA Tour, which has been embroiled in a tussle with the Saudi Arabia-backed breakaway league.
LIV Golf held its latest event last weekend in Bedminster, New Jersey, with Henrik Stenson – who was removed as Ryder Cup captain after deciding to join the new tour – claiming victory in his first outing.
Norman previously said that Woods had been offered a "high nine digits" sum to join LIV Golf, which has so far been unable to attract many of the world's best, though has snagged big names such as Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia and Dustin Johnson.
In an interview with Fox News with Tucker Carlson that was broadcast on Monday in the United States, Norman confirmed that Woods had been offered in the region of $700m to $800m.
"That number was out there before I became CEO. So that number has been out there, yes," Norman said.
"And, look, Tiger is a needle-mover and of course you have to look at the best of the best.
"So they had originally approached Tiger before I became CEO. So, yes, that number was somewhere in that neighbourhood."
Two-time major winner Norman has become a controversial figure within the sport, and was barred from attending the Celebration of Champions or the Champions' Dinner prior to The 150th Open Championship at St Andrews last month.
Woods failed to make the cut at that tournament, but backed the decision to disinvite Norman from the celebrations, saying: "Greg has done some things that I don't think are in the best interest of our game, and we're coming back to probably the most historic and traditional place in our sport. I believe it's the right thing."
Yet the Australian is unperturbed by any possible damage to his reputation.
"I really don't care," said Norman, who claimed he is unaware why LIV Golf has caused such uproar.
"I just love the game so much and I want to grow the game of golf and we at LIV see that opportunity not just for the men but for the women."
Ryan Lue & Jodi Munn-Barrow take early lead in JGA National Senior Trials
Sixteen-year-old Ryan Lue and Jodi Munn-Barrow are the early leaders at the National Senior Trials which teed off on Friday at the Half Moon Golf Course in St. James. The trials will be used to select Jamaica’s team for the 66th Caribbean Amateur Golf Championship.
Lue posted two under-par 70 to be the only golfer to post an under-par score at the end of the first round.
His scorecard showed three birdies on the front nine on holes two, eight and nine for a three under- par 33.
He then started the back nine positively with a birdie on hole number ten and was four under par at that point but was pegged back by two bogeys on holes fifteen and seventeen, to close the round with a three-stroke lead over Zandre Roye.
Roye scored one over par 73 for his second place at the end of the round.
Former national golf champion, Sean Morris, was a close third on two over-par 74 but four strokes off the lead.
The 2022 national golf champion, Oshae Haye, was not far off on 75.
The current national golf champion, William Knibbs, and Dr. Mark Newnham were holding down the fifth spot on four over par 76 each.
The top two ladies on the course were closely bunched together and are within one shot of each other. The Jamaica Golf Association president Jodi Munn-Barrow was on nine over par 81 while Mattea Issa was in second place on ten over par 82.
"Conditions were very difficult today. A lot of rain has fallen in Montego Bay so the course was extremely wet. While we were playing there was rain so it was very, very hard condition to play under but overall happy with the outcome. Did leave some on the course but look forward to tomorrow" said Munn-Barrow.
The other female in the field was Anoushka Khatri who posted 93 for third place.
The golfers are set to tee off at 9:30 am Saturday for the second round.
David Law tames the Green Monster course to move into contention in Hamburg
Scotland’s David Law produced a “pretty unbelievable” second round to lie a shot off the halfway lead in the Porsche European Open in Hamburg.
Law tamed a 7,455-yard course known as the Green Monster as he fired an eagle and eight birdies in a seven-under-par 66, a nine-shot improvement on his opening 75.
That drew high praise from the man at the top of the leaderboard, Germany’s Max Kieffer adding a 71 to his opening 69 to reach six under par, a shot ahead of Law, England’s Jordan Smith and Northern Ireland’s Tom McKibbin.
“First of all, seven under is pretty unbelievable,” Kieffer said when told of Law’s score. “That’s a crazy round of golf.
“It’s playing quite long, even though it’s a bit shorter this year than the last few years. There’s lots of water, the greens are quite undulated.
“If you hit a loose shot here and there, usually on every hole there’s a bit of trouble. It’s a very tough course.”
Law could easily have gone even lower than 66 after starting on the back nine and following six birdies in his first eight holes with an eagle on the par-five 18th to be out in 30.
A bogey on the second halted his momentum and although he birdied the fourth and seventh, Law bogeyed his last two holes of the day.
“I went out there just trying to play golf and make birdies and score as low as I can,” the 32-year-old said. “The brakes came on a bit on the back nine, but it’s a difficult course, it’s tough.
“The goal is to keep doing what we were doing. I tried hard on the back nine to keep in the present and make birdies like we were, but it didn’t happen. Barring the last two holes we played really nice on that second nine.”
Arguably the shot of the day belonged to Law’s compatriot Ewen Ferguson, who putted out of a bunker on the 14th and holed from 25 feet for birdie.
“The sand is very firm and compact,” Ferguson said after a 72 left him three off the lead.
“It was a narrow green and I thought if I didn’t get the strike right (with a sand wedge) it could have trickled into the water or I had to go left of the pin.
“I thought I’d putt it and it rolled nicely didn’t it? I’ve never had that before. You just have to go for it and see what happens. Just smash it out and get lucky.”
Rory McIlroy bounces back to form in the Memorial Tournament
Rory McIlroy bounced back from the nightmare finish to his opening round on day two of the prestigious Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village.
Just two days after tournament host Jack Nicklaus had lamented McIlroy’s occasional lapses in concentration, the four-time major winner carded a triple bogey on the 18th to card a level-par 72.
“I don’t know whether his is a constant lack of being able to keep that concentration for the whole thing or not, because sometimes he (goes) par, par, par, double, eight,” Nicklaus said in his pre-event press conference.
“He does that sometimes.”
It was not an eight on Thursday but a nevertheless destructive seven on the par-four 18th, where his drive finished in deep rough on a steep side slope.
McIlroy could only hack his ball almost sideways into more rough and he caught a flier with his third before taking four shots to get down from the back of the green.
“I felt good about everything that I did yesterday,” McIlroy said after carding six birdies and two bogeys in a second round of 68.
“I got one bad break on 18 with that ball finishing on the bank of the bunker. So I really feel like I’m one shot out of leading this golf tournament.
“(If) that rolls down into the bunker, hopefully I’m able to hit it on the green and make a four and instead of standing here at four under I would be at seven under and feeling really good about everything.
“I felt like I did a lot of really good things yesterday and I did a lot of good things right, so I can’t let that one sort of unlucky break sort of hide the fact that everything else was working pretty well.”
At four under par McIlroy was three shots off the early clubhouse lead held by Hideki Matsuyama, the former Masters champion carding a superb bogey-free 65 to lead by one from Patrick Cantlay and David Lipsky.
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