Sports

Australian resort owner doesn’t want Tiger at his tournament

There is a billionaire in Australia who is bitter and angry, and in his spate of rage, has lost all of his perspective.

Clive Palmer owns the Palmer Coolum Resort Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, and in light of the fact that the Australian PGA Championship might be looking at other venues for the first time in 10 years, Palmer decided to make the nonsensical point that his tournament doesn’t need Tiger Woods.

“Tiger Woods isn’t the No. 1 golfer in the world anymore,” Palmer told The Australian newspaper for Monday’s editions. “We don’t want to look backwards, we want to look forwards. So why would you get Tiger Woods here? I would prefer to have Peter Senior than Tiger Woods.

“I am sure Peter Senior could beat Tiger Woods on a good day,” Palmer continued. “I am sure he could.”

Peter Senior is the 53-year-old European Tour journeyman won the Australian PGA three times, most recently two years ago, one year before Palmer even bought the Coolum Resort from Hyatt.

Senior has four career wins on the European Tour.

Tiger Woods has won 14 major championships.

“Tiger Woods has improved a lot,” Palmer said, “but he’s an emotional wreck and he’s not a good example for kids, anyway.”

The best foreign player in this year’s event, held Dec. 13-16, was former British Open champion Darren Clarke. He placed tied for 8th, as Daniel Popovic won with a four-round total of 16-under par.

Palmer said he tried to convince American Rickie Fowler, among others, to come play in the event, but was denied because the date was too close to Christmas. The Australian PGA, which runs the event in conjunction with the OneAsia Tour, asked to move the date to before the more-popular Australian Open, which is normally played in early December. Palmer denied that request, which didn’t help the case for getting a stronger field, or the case for keeping the tournament as his course.

To make it even worse, Palmer decided to put words into the mouth of the man whose world ranking is No. 1, Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy.

“If you rang him now he would probably tell you unless it’s at Palmer Coolum Resort, I won’t come,” Palmer said of McIlory, who said no such thing publicly. “We can be sure he won’t come if it goes somewhere else. If it stays here there is a chance he might come here. We had Darren Clarke and Bubba Watson.”

Bubba Watson did not play in the event this year, but tied for 12th last year when the event was in late November, before the Australian Open.

Palmer has a T-Rex replica on the course, is planning a real “dinosaur nursery” for the resort, and is building a replica of the Titanic called . . . Titanic II.

bcyrgalis@nypost.com