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The LIV tour — probably the most controversial travelling circus within the historical past of the game — will quickly be on Australian shores, however will or not it’s good for Australian golf?
Key factors:
- The LIV tour will come to Adelaide for an occasion in April
- Australian golf legend Karrie Webb is torn on whether or not the controversial tour might be good for the game on this nation
- Whereas it is going to increase the game’s profile, Webb is anxious concerning the origin of the tour’s funding and the dearth of alternatives it is going to give to younger Australian golfers
The Saudi-backed breakaway golf league will land in Adelaide in April for the third occasion of the inaugural LIV Golf League, with 48 of the very best gamers on the earth battling it out for a staggering prize of $20 million.
LIV, which has Aussie legend Greg Norman as CEO, has ignited heated debate from the second it was launched. Australian girls’s golf legend Karrie Webb is cut up on whether or not it will likely be good for the game on this nation.
“I suppose it will be good that golf might be in Australia in April when it is not usually, that places golf within the headlines,” Webb instructed ABC Grandstand.
“As soon as the golf summer time finishes right here the one headlines are if an Australian does properly abroad.
“It is good for Adelaide to have an enormous occasion, I beloved after we performed there for the Australian Open for all these years – the South Australian crowds had been nice help, so it is nice for them and it is nice to have our high Aussie guys again.
“However when it comes to giving alternatives to different younger Australians to play, it would not try this. It is 48 gamers who journey around the globe and play collectively and it would not present any alternatives apart from [for] these 48.
“For those who take a look at it as being good for golf, in what avenues is it good for golf? Some are good and a few are usually not so good. You’ll be able to decide it aside any approach you need.”
Webb mentioned her fundamental level of rivalry with the LIV idea was how the staggering contracts supplied to the world’s high gamers to defect from the PGA tour strengthened the worst side of {golfing} stereotypes.
And whereas there are points of the brand new tour that would assist entice a brand new fanbase to the game Webb loves, the 48-year previous is just not snug with the way in which the Saudi Arabian-backed tour has been funded.
“The messaging from the LIV tour is not what I would prefer to see about golf. Leaping from probably the most profitable tour and going to a different tour for extra money, that is the stigma of golf we’re making an attempt to shake – that it is a wealthy man’s sport. That messaging is not the best,” Webb mentioned.
“However there are issues concerning the LIV tour that I believe are compelling. A workforce side is compelling and that may create new, youthful followers.
“On the finish of the day I am not towards new competitors in golf or new excursions, it is simply the way in which it is dealt with and, for me, fairly truthfully the way in which it is funded.
“The best way it is funded is the largest hurdle for me.”
Growing the game in Australia is one thing near Webb’s coronary heart and she or he believes the crop of feminine golfers coming by way of is among the many strongest the nation has ever produced.
With celebrity Minjee Lee capturing one other main final yr and the likes of Hannah Inexperienced, Grace Kim and Steph Kyriacou all shining, the long run appears brighter than ever.
“She (Minjee Lee) had an amazing yr final yr and actually got here into her personal. She’s acquired greater than this yr forward of her, she’s constructing on an already nice profession so I would search for her to play properly,” Webb mentioned.
“I would search for Hannah Inexperienced to interrupt into the winner circle, apart from not successful on the LGPA, that was the one factor she did not do, it was her most constant yr.
“We now have Steph Kyriacou, she performed rather well in her rookie yr and it took her a superb couple of months to settle in however as soon as she did she performed rather well.
“Gracie Kim, she’s a expertise and a star within the making, I believe she’ll have a number of early nerves on the LGPA early within the yr, moving into the massive time.
“However she’s prepared, she simply has to consider she’s able to take that subsequent step and as soon as she does consider that the sky is the restrict for her.”
Webb might be taking to the course herself at subsequent month’s Victorian Open as she returns to the occasion for the primary time since 2020.
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