The breakaway LIV series can do for golf what the IPL did for cricket, India's top player Anirban Lahiri has claimed after joining the lucrative Saudi-backed tour.
The new circuit has sparked a bitter rift that threatens to tear golf apart, prompting accusations of "sporting fabrication" over Saudi Arabia's human rights record.
The breakaway LIV series can do for golf what the IPL did for cricket, India's top player Anirban Lahiri has claimed after joining the lucrative Saudi-backed tour.
Despite that and the huge prize money offered to lure players away from the more established US PGA and European tours, defector Lahiri said LIV would benefit others.
Lahiri, runner-up at the Players Championship in March, was one of six new recruits - along with world number two Cameron Smith
"I look at the Indian Premier League and T20. When it started, I remember the almost vehement opposition it got,"
“But it had the potential to change the way we consumed cricket."Look at it now. The broadcasters are delighted because they are getting off-the-charts ratings,"
The shorter Twenty20 format that the IPL promoted was "so much fun"."LIV can be the IPL of golf," said the 35-year-old world No.92.