New South Wales government ‘ready and willing’ to discuss bringing rebel LIV golf tour to Australia

The New South Wales government is “ready and willing” to have discussions with Greg Norman in a bid to bring the Saudi-backed LIV golf tour to Sydney, the state’s sports minister has said.

Amid increasing speculation Norman is seeking to bring the controversial breakaway tournament to Australia, the minister, Alister Henskens, confirmed he was open to hosting the multi-million dollar rebel series.

“With some of the best courses in Australia, NSW is the perfect place to host major golf tournaments,” he told the Guardian.

“We are ready and willing to have discussions about bringing more professional tour events to NSW.”

On Wednesday Norman was quoted in the Daily Telegraph as saying unnamed state governments were “putting taxpayers’ money on the table” to lure the tour to Australia.

Norman told the Telegraph he had “already held talks with state ministers” in a bid to secure a course to host an event as soon as April next year.

He said “conversations have been had” and that negotiations “will probably pick up here in the next week”.

The Guardian understands Norman has been shopping the prospect of hosting a LIV Golf event to a number of clubs in Sydney, but is yet to have formal discussions with Henskens, who has only been in the role since last month.

The rebel series has been highly controversial due to its financial links to the repressive Saudi regime, but Henskens said in a statement NSW wanted to “attract the biggest and best events to our state”.

“NSW has more than 166,000 registered golfers, upwards of 370 courses and the game has an economic impact of about $1.3bn annually to the NSW economy.”

Both the Queensland and Victorian governments told the Guardian on Wednesday they had not been approached by Norman, nor