Greg Norman remains to be offended in regards to the remedy of professional golfers who joined LIV Golf.
Bryan Lynn/Icon Sportswire through Getty Photos
We nonetheless don’t have any phrase on the progress (or lack thereof) in negotiations between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabia PIF, which funds LIV Golf. And whereas LIV CEO Greg Norman isn’t ready to plan for the longer term, he nonetheless has one foot caught within the warring previous, as he revealed in a brand new interview.
Sitting down with Bloomberg Information, Norman talked intimately in regards to the present state of LIV and his imaginative and prescient for the years to return, however he additionally dipped again into the controversial origins of the upstart league, and the hurdles they confronted from the remainder of the golf world.
Right here’s why Greg Norman ‘feels sorry’ for LIV Golf’s critics
“There was a number of headwinds to start with as a result of the monopolists actually managed the sport on a worldwide foundation,” Norman advised Bloomberg. “And we got here together with a platform or a enterprise mannequin that would work side-by-side inside the ecosystem.”
Regardless of the criticism he and his Tour confronted within the media, Norman conversely claimed that he confronted no such resistance to LIV in particular person.
“Nowhere in my total journey within the final three years since I’ve been CEO and commissioner [of LIV Golf] has somebody come as much as me and mentioned, ‘What you might be doing is fallacious.’ And I believe that’s a strong sufficient testomony of claiming that our product is our product and our product is obtained with open arms by many.”
However he additionally threw a thinly-veiled shot throughout the bow of the PGA Tour, saying, “By a couple of who need to cease us for all of the fallacious causes, they haven’t been capable of maintain their place within the recreation of golf. What we’ve finished brilliantly is injected extra capital into the sport of golf. Golf is lastly seemed on as an asset class.”
Norman saved his strongest phrases for the early critics of LIV Golf, particularly these criticizing the primary wave of execs who joined up, calling the remedy of these gamers “disgusting.”
“And I praise the boys who got here on, the primary movers. They got here on with an enormous quantity of headwinds,” Norman mentioned. “The vitriol and the hatred was simply disgusting, to be sincere with you, contemplating what these guys have finished within the recreation of golf and the way they’ve carried the sport of golf and the establishments they represented, was disgusting.”
As for the longer term, Norman sees LIV taking management of the sport of golf exterior of the U.S. and pointed to LIV’s venue lineup as proof of their success in that pursuit.
“We began out a pair years in the past doing about 9 and 5 [venues] — 9 within the U.S. and 5 worldwide. And now that’s flipped. So the worldwide scene, the worldwide scene has opened their arms to us in a big approach. The USA is getting there, however the globe has opened up their arms.
“So in the end, what we’ll find yourself doing is taking the sport on a worldwide foundation.”
Regardless of Norman’s confidence, the way forward for LIV Golf may be very a lot up within the air. Till negotiations on an official settlement between the PGA Tour and the PIF is finalized, we received’t know the way LIV will match into that image.
