LIV GOLF ADELAIDE

April 21, 2023

Greg Norman

The Grange

Quick Quotes

Q. Please tell us about the strategic importance of the Asian market to LIV Golf and highlight some of the efforts you're making here.

GREG NORMAN: No question, I think the strategic efforts by us was recognized very, very early on in the fact that the Asian market is a sleeping giant. We originally invested $300 million into the Asian Tour for a specific reason. We know this is where the growth is going in the game of golf for generations to come. Our data point on that is the fact that today, 65 percent of all golf courses built in the world today are from the GCC to the Asia-Pacific Rim, so it's a huge basin, a huge opportunity going forward. It's just the start, and I've been involved with this and understand and follow this very, very closely because of my golf course design business. I recognize it.

I've had a close affinity with Asia for a long, long period of time, both off the golf course and on the golf course through my golf diplomacy, so I'm going to stay supremely focused on that region.

Q. As an up-and-coming player, you spent a lot of time competing in the region. What are your thoughts on the region from a player's perspective, and how have things changed?

GREG NORMAN: Nothing really changed, to be honest with you. I was fortunate enough to get to the position to be No. 1 player in the world. That gave me the ability to go to places that nobody has ever been to before. For example, I was the first person to do an exhibition match in mainland China to bring golf there, and it was just an incredible injection of enthusiasm way back when in the '80s.

And then the same thing with what we've done in Vietnam in a lot of ways. I'm proud of the fact that I was asked to be the ambassador for tourism and sport for Vietnam, to bring high-quality golf to a magnificent third-world country, and it's exploded in that region because of what I just explained before.

From my perspective as a player, I paved the way in many ways, not only for myself with my brand, but myself as a player and later on in life. I try and instill this value of understanding the future into some of the team captains and the players that are on LIV today because when you look into the future, you don't look about what you're doing today, you look about where you can be 8 to 12 years from now, and that's how you build your market out. You look into the future, you build into the future, and Asia is going to be a dynamic place to be able to do that.