Australian golfing legend Greg Norman says he's never raised Saudi Arabia's human rights record with the backers of the LIV Golf tournament, and insists golf is a "force for good".
Mr Norman's comments came at a press conference ahead of the Adelaide leg of the tournament at Grange Golf Club.
When asked if he had ever had a conversation with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman or any of the other senior leadership of the Public Investment Fund — a Saudi government fund that owns a reported 93 per cent of LIV Golf — Norman was blunt.
"Nope, I have not," he said. "I'm the chairman and CEO of LIV Golf Investments, and that's where I focus.
"I focus on golf. I stay focused on golf."
Norman said that, through his involvement with golf as both a player and a course designer, he had seen golf as a "force for good".
"I've built some golf courses in Third World countries. I've built golf courses in Communist countries," he said.
"It goes everywhere with the right platform, because it delivers the right message, from education, to hospitality, to employment, to tourism, everywhere you go, golf is a force for good."
The Adelaide event begins on Friday, and is set to feature some of the world's top players, including majors winners Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson and Cameron Smith.
Human rights advocates have described the LIV Golf tour as a "blatant example of sportswashing", comments dismissed by South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas at Thursday's press conference.
"LIV is not a representative of Saudi Arabia, LIV is a golf tournament," the premier said.
"LIV Golf is here exclusively in its capacity, putting on a high-quality and elite golf tournament.
"I accept and acknowledge it's an incredibly competitive market place. Greg's already talked to the numbers of tours that already exist in the golf market globally.
"I also accept the fact, with that high degree of competition — particularly when you see a degree of disruption — there will be people that, I think, are motivated, if not incentivised monetarily, to advocate against the competition, using whatever means they have at their disposal."
The premier said the Commonwealth government had chosen to engage with a "whole range of substantial trading partners" over decades, and that Saudi Arabia was no exception.
"As a nation, and indeed South Australia, we've got a really proud track record of advocating on behalf of the cause of humanity, generally, when it comes to human rights considerations, and all the actions of the state government and, I think, the Commonwealth have remained consistent with those principles," he said.
The premier also said there were clear economic benefits to hosting the LIV Golf tournament, while the dollar figure of state government's investment in the tournament remains secret.
"The economic benefit of the South Australian government's investment in major events has been well demonstrated over the course of [the] last weekend and, already, what we're seeing over the course of this week," he said.
As of Wednesday, more than 63,000 tickets had been sold to the tournament.
