In March, after many months of effort, persuasion and speculation, Greg Norman finally went public with his grand plan to upend the men’s professional game. His Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series was determined to challenge the supremacy of the PGA Tour. The top touring professionals, he claimed, were going to sign contracts to be a part of a new league, one that played fewer events than the PGA Tour and offered unheard-of paydays.
Now, just weeks later, LIV Golf is in full retreat. There will be no league to join until 2024, at the earliest. The brand-name stars whom Norman was hired to recruit have declined to participate, and Norman is left with a bunch of “legacy” players. He also is going to share some of the Saudi petro bucks with top-ranked amateurs, offering them name, image and likeness deals that could be huge.
And so, it is time for Greg to go.
Norman’s dream became a nightmare when Phil Mickelson’s colorful comments about the Saudis became public. Mickelson, who had been actively recruiting for the Saudis and the proposed league for many months, was discovered to have had a different agenda than they thought. He was less interested in helping establish the new professional circuit and more interested in gaining leverage over the PGA Tour and its commissioner, Jay Monahan.
Shortly thereafter, some of the brand names whom Norman thought he had ready to sign – including Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau – backed away and pledged their loyalty to the PGA Tour. Norman characterized this as a “kick in the teeth” and seems to believe that the PGA Tour orchestrated the Mickelson outburst. His conspiracy theory is as laughable as those espoused by Rudy Giuliani and the My Pillow guy.
One thing that has become clear of late is that Augusta National Golf Club is a factor in the outcome of this situation. The Masters is an invitational tournament. Nowhere is it written that past champions enjoy a lifetime exemption to the Masters; it’s a tradition, not a policy. And as a private club, Augusta National can invite anyone whom it wants to play, and not invite those whom they don’t want to grace its fairways each April. Augusta National underscored this fact when it apparently chose not to invite Norman, a two-time major champion, to attend this year, as it has as a courtesy to major champions in past years.
You can imagine how relieved Augusta National was to learn that Norman “respected the Masters and let it go off.” Norman’s hubris knows no bounds.
Greg Norman is not capable of collaboration. He can’t get a meeting with the leaders of the institutions. What he is selling players, they aren’t buying. He has a score to settle with the PGA Tour.
Rumors were abundant in mid-February during the week of the Genesis Open near Los Angeles that Dustin Johnson was warned that if he were to join the LIV circuit, he might well jeopardize his future participation in the Masters. And despite ANGC Chairman Fred Ridley’s statement at his press conference this year that Mickelson, a three-time Masters champion, chose not to play, there are going to be players who think he was told to stay home.
Whether true or urban legend, such rumors become warning shots that get the attention of any of today’s players who aspire to wear the green jacket, or any of the players who already have one.
Norman has acknowledged that he tried to get a meeting with Ridley, but he was rebuffed until he “made it good with the other institutions.” Other institutions would mean the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, but Norman has no desire to make things good with Monahan. Instead, he’d rather send silly, unprofessional letters with vague legal threats.
Augusta National is an important part of the golf ecosystem. Many thought it would be a wild card in this LIV drama; it now appears that the club holds five aces.
Golf fans must wonder what Golf Saudi and the nation’s Public Investment Fund are thinking about this mess. The Saudis didn’t sign up for a circuit of amateurs and aging tour players. They expected Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, DeChambeau and Mickelson. Instead, they are more likely to get Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Kevin Na and a bunch of American college players. There must be some degree of embarrassment in Riyadh.
Somewhere, Colin Montgomerie eagerly awaits a call.
A wise industry hand observed to me last summer that, if someone wants to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the game, the game ought to listen. He’s not wrong. But by the same token, the Saudis ought to regroup and figure out how to work within the ecosystem, not attempt to tear it down.
This is especially true given the LIV investment in the Asian Tour. I have written that this investment is inarguably good for the game in that region. But it exists outside the ecosystem, and so the Order of Merit winner might take home some cash, but he has nowhere to go to continue to improve and climb the world rankings. That is decidedly not good for golf in the region.
The past decade has been marked by unprecedented collaboration among the governing bodies of golf and the professional tours. This joint effort was critical in helping the professional and amateur games navigate through the pandemic year of 2020. To be sure, they compete, for sponsors and venues and in other realms. But the leaders of the major golf institutions know that collaboration, where possible, is in the best interests of the game.
Greg Norman is not capable of collaboration. He can’t get a meeting with the leaders of the institutions. What he is selling players, they aren’t buying. He has a score to settle with the PGA Tour. He is taking the spotlight off of LIV and its mission and turning it, as he always has, on himself. He is a divisive figure who, over a long period of time, has become a pariah in the game.
Despite stating over and over by Norman that his involvement is about growing the game and providing more and better playing opportunities for tour professionals, there always has been a sense among those paying attention that his involvement is about one thing and one thing only: settling a 30-year-old grudge with the PGA Tour.
And once again, it looks as if he has been outfoxed by the tour.
This is the moment to turn to Sean Bratches, the highly respected global sports business executive who had a long run at the highest levels of ESPN and a successful term as managing director of Formula One. Bratches, a serious golfer and a member of the R&A, joined LIV earlier this year.
As Norman’s successor, Bratches could be the bridge builder who could get a meeting with anyone in golf and find ways to mesh Golf Saudi’s long-term vision with the game’s existing ecosystem. That’s the only way LIV is going to have any real success.
When LIV Golf was announced, Norman boldly proclaimed that the new entity was in it for the long term. For there to be a long term for LIV Golf, a change in leadership is required.
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