*Trump Doonbeg. Photograph: Arthur Ellis
DOONBEG HAS BEEN TOUTED to host the controversial LIV Golf International Series in 2024.
Former US President, Donald Trump is set to visit his West Clare resort later this month and it has also emerged that the controversial LIV Golf Invitational Series is likely to take place at Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg.
Funded by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, the LIV Series has become one of the most controversial sporting events of recent times. Golfers who have signed up to the Saudi-backed breakaway series have come under fire, Swedish golfer Henrik Stenson was stripped of the Ryder Cup captaincy after joining the series.
The name LIV is a reference to the Roman numeral for 54, the score if every hole on a par-72 course were birdied and the number of holes to be played at LIV events.
Greg Norman who is the face and CEO of LIV Golf designed the Doonbeg course in 2002 on 400 acres of breath-taking coastline. He is determined to take the series to Doonbeg but when it will be held is dependent on a potential new date for the Horizon Irish Open.
Norman appears determined to win his battle with the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour having been thwarted in his efforts to create a new tour in the 1990s. The Australian admitted to the New York Post this week that it was a personal mission to win the battle this time.
Trump Doonbeg is almost booked out already for 2023 so 2024 is the earliest juncture that the links could host one of the new tour’s 48-man, 54-hole, no-cut events.
