Golfer ranked No 1050 to bag record payday and minor fortune from Saudi league

The little-known Kevin Yuan will have the payday of his life even if he finishes last at The Centurion Club this week.

The highly controversial LIV Golf invitational series will tee off on Thursday, with a 54-hole tournament at St Albans. A pot of £20 million will be shared between the players, with a team competition running adjacent to the individual tournament.

The overall winner will pocket £3.8 million, nearly double the amount that American star Justin Thomas pocketed for winning the recent US PGA. And Greg Norman, the face of the new venture, won't be short of star power when he gets his Saudi-backed show on the road.

After it was confirmed that Phil Mickleson will be taking part, yesterday former world No 1 Dustin Johnson announced he would be resigning from the PGA Tour and concentrating on LIV Golf events. The likes of Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia, and Lee Westwood had already been named in field.

But it's not just the more esteemed players who will benefit financially. Also in the field are the likes of world No 1050 Yuan, whose career earnings stand at just over £209,000 since he made his professional debut in 2017.

Were he to finish last out of the 48 players in Hertfordshire, he would still earn more than £95,000. That would undoubtedly represent the most lucrative day in the career of a golfer whose best result in 2022 thus far has been tied-fifth at the Nexus Advisernet WA Open in Fremantle.

Can you blame Kevin Yuan for taking the cash? Let us know in the comments section.

Yuan has spent much of his career thus far trying to make headway on the Asian Tour, and for context, his most recent effort, ninth place in the tour's International Series event in England, earned him £27,000. And he recently lauded the 'opportunity' presented to him by Norman and co.

"I'm in such a different position that I was just a week ago," he told the Australian Associated Press. "My family too – so I'm really trying to grab everything I can because this chance is so good."

Indeed, the Sydney-born player has already been hit financially by the Covid pandemic. It is therefore perhaps unsurprising that he's snapped at the chance to earn mega-bucks on Norman's rebel tour.

Source: Read Full Article