Greg Norman Argues LIV Golf was Unfairly Targeted After Phil Mickelson’s ‘Scary Motherf*ckers’ Comment About Saudis

LIV Golf CEO and former PGA favorite Greg Norman told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that Phil Mickelson’s comments about Saudi Arabian human rights abuses did not do the upstart league any favors.

He implied the controversial league, paid for by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, could have gotten off to a better start.

While not quoting Mickelson verbatim, Norman referred to comments where the former called Saudis “scary motherfuckers.”

In February, it was reported Mickelson told author Alan Shipnuck:

[Saudis] scary motherfuckers to get involved with…They killed [Jamal Khashoggi] and have a horrible record on human rights… They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.

At the time, Mickelson was mulling a jump to the league.

Norman, sitting across from Carlson at former President Donald Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, referred to his remarks as “not-so-complimentary.”

Carlson asked Norman how the league found itself the subject of controversy. Norman responded:

The book came out about Phil Mickelson. Phil Mickelson made some not-so-complimentary remarks about the Saudis, where the money came from, Saudi Arabia. It snowballed and it created kind of a domino, scary effect. The PGA tour came in, they do the right thing trying to protect their monopoly.

The players backed off a little bit so we had to regroup. We were ready to sign the next week. Ready to sign multiple players and launch the league so we decided to take a step back, analyze the situation. We knew our model was where it was. We knew that it was there.

Norman called the PGA and players’ corporate sponsors hypocrites for opposing them taking money from Saudi Arabia.

“[These are] sponsors who spend millions of dollars in Saudi Arabia,” Norman said. “The PGA Tour I think has about 27 sponsors, on the PGA tour, [who do] $40-plus billion worth of business on an annual basis in Saudi Arabia. Why doesn’t the PGA tour call the CEOs, saying that we can’t do business with you because you are doing business with Saudi Arabia?”

Norman concluded the LPGA’s largest single sponsor is Saudi oil company Saudi Aramco.

Watch above, via Fox News.