Golf Saudi CEO Confirms Interest In Premier Golf League, Past Discussions With PGA Tour

Martin Dempster reports from the first ever Saudi Golf Summit in King Abdullah Economic City where CEO Majed Al Sorour revealed several intriguing nuggets.

After just wrapping up the hosting of the European Tour, the CEO suggested a second Euro event is on the agenda as are hopes for visits from the Asian Tour, the LPGA Tour and even the PGA Tour where discussions involved a World Cup.

"We have the Ladies European Tour and they merged together with the LPGA, so hopefully we get to the point where we have an LPGA event.

"And, of course, we’d love to have a PGA Tour event. One and a half years ago, I sat with Ty [Votaw, the PGA Tour's chief marketing officer) and had a great conversation on having an idea of putting a PGA Tour event in Saudi Arabia.

"One of the things that we also want to discuss with him is a World Cup and how we’re going to do that in Saudi Arabia, if that’s possible."

You may recall it was just last week that PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan emailed players about the hostile Tour siphoning players away and highlighted that funding was coming from Saudi Arabia, home to public beheadings, among other human rights violations. A more cynical person than I might suspect he was suggesting the money was, uh, not clean.

As for rumored backing of the Premier Golf League from the Crown Prince and his Kingdom-backed Golf Saudi, Al Sorour sounds excited.

“We can address it in multiple ways," he said. "Is it good for the game or not? This is what we’re thinking. If something is good for the game, we should just listen to the people who are leading it, sit down with the PGA Tour if the time permits.

"We’re just here to listen. We love the game and our love for the game will do whatever it takes to make the game great."

That is, if the time permits.

If the CEO were to speak to Monahan this week, he’d have to do it in between rounds of the AT&T National Pro-Am where the Commish is taking a working vacation.