LIV Golf International Series: 'The sport's bitter power struggle takes another twist'

As Lee Westwood and Richard Bland confirmed seeking waivers to compete in Greg Norman's Saudi-backed rebel series, an alternative breakaway tour is urging PGA Tour members to persuade the American circuit to side with them.

It is another sign of a bitter power struggle at the top of men's professional golf, with the established tours in the United States and Europe under increasing pressure.

Norman's LIV Golf International Series is due to start at the Centurion Club in Hertfordshire with a three-day event next month worth $25m (£20m), the most lucrative in the sport's history.

Players need releases from the PGA and DP World Tours to be allowed to compete. Waivers are expected to be granted for the opening event, but not for subsequent LIV events in the United States.

It raises the prospect of possible player bans and legal disputes. And established tours are also fighting the threat of another upstart circuit.

The British-based World Golf Group is behind the Premier Golf League (PGL) which originally came up with the idea of 54-hole tournaments, including a team element, for the world's elite to be played in a Formula 1-style series of global events.

In a briefing note, sent on Wednesday to all PGA Tour members and seen by BBC Sport, the World Golf Group claims Norman's International Series, run by the Saudi Arabia-funded LIV Golf Investments, "represents an existential threat" to the PGA Tour.

PGL has been trying to convince the established American circuit to work with it, promising at least $2m up front for each of its members in return. The American-based tour has refused to engage.

Now PGA Tour members are being urged to call on their own Policy Board to instruct tour bosses to enter talks with PGL officials.

This letter, dated 4 May 2022, has been sent to player representatives. It urges "a call to action" and states: "Your profession is approaching an historic crossroads.

"The 'International Series', funded and owned by LIV Golf Investments (LIV), represents an existential threat, not only to the PGA Tour's dominance, but also its model.

"Change is not only inevitable, it is happening - and no amount of purse rejigging, head-burying, ban threatening, alliance making or 'moving on' will derail it."

The letter adds: "LIV's superb format (based on our very own, original, PGL format) is capable of generating $10bn+ [£8bn+] of equity value. Hence, LIV is prepared to spend $400m+ [£320m+] to demonstrate the brilliance of the model, across eight events."

PGA Tour members are told in the briefing note that they could "own 50% of PGL" and make $20m (£16m) each with $2m (£1.6m) up front with a further $1bn (£799.5m) of value to be shared among the feeder Korn Ferry Tour and the European-based DP World Tour.

PGL also claims that to do nothing would lead to a merger between the PGA and European Tours "that would serve neither membership".

But unlike Norman, whose project is backed by Saudi Arabia's vast Public Investment Fund, the British-based upstarts have to convince the world's leading golfers they have the financial clout to back their claims.

A previous approach to the PGA Tour's Policy Board was referred to a private investment bank that concluded PGL's claim that it could generate $10bn of value was not possible.

The PGL insists the bank never spoke to it and is calling for an independent valuation of its proposals.