Golf legend Greg Norman set to run competing tour that hopes to begin play in 2022

Golf icon Greg Norman will put his successful business enterprise aside to become the commissioner of a long-rumored and long-discussed golf league that hopes to begin play in 2022, and he is seeking to sign players to lucrative guaranteed deals with big-money purses.

Norman, 66, announced his association with LIV Golf Investments, backed by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. Norman will be chief operating officer of the enterprise, as well as commissioner of the new league.

As part of the announcement, Norman said Liv Golf Investments, which will be investing in various golf ventures, has committed a nine-figure sum to help the Asian Tour stage an additional 10 events over the next 10 years.

“This is the biggest decision of my life,” Norman said in an interview.

Norman will continue to be based in South Florida to run the new venture while keeping a hand in his golf-course design business.

“What do I do with the Greg Norman Company? It has 12 divisions. I can’t do both. I can’t put both feet in both office buildings and give 100 percent effort,” he said. “So I decided to step away from Greg Norman Company. I’m handing the reins over for the first time in my life to other individuals to run my company.

“That was a big, big decision because that’s how much I believe in this. That’s how much I believe in the people who have been behind this to get it to a point where we are now taking it and to a point where we will be live and have the first ball in the air in the [spring] of next year.”

Norman, a 20-time winner on the PGA Tour who captured two major titles and won 88 times, would not disclose the name or other details or whether any players have signed on to the new league. He would not specify the length of his contract but said he is on board for a “four- to seven-year commitment.” In 1993-94, when Norman was in the prime of his playing career, which saw him ranked No. 1 in the world for 331 weeks, he put forth an…