LIV Golf chief Greg Norman addressed the media ahead of the highly anticipated Adelaide event and weighed into a number of the game’s major talking points.
The breakaway tour returns to The Grange this week, the scene of arguably its most popular tournament to date in 2023, with Norman anticipating a similarly successful week Down Under.
But with the men’s game still fractured and recent rumours of a Rory McIlroy offer, there was plenty to grill ‘The Shark’ about.
Here are five things we learned from Norman’s LIV Golf Adelaide press conference.
Norman denies McIlroy offer
The world of golf was put on red alert following The Masters. Scottie Scheffler captured his second Green Jacket to continue his incredible run of form, but that became overshadowed when reports emerged that McIlroy was considering a mega offer in the region of $850 million to join LIV Golf.
The Northern Irishman emphatically squashed any notion of a switch to the Saudi-backed series in the short and long-term ahead of the RBC Heritage, pledging his loyalty to the PGA Tour.
Naturally, Norman was asked about the speculation linking one of the PGA Tour’s staunchest supporters with a shock U-turn.
“Look, I'll make the comment if you look back over that time period of that dialogue that was going, there wasn't one comment about LIV,” Norman said. “LIV never put an offer to him.
“We didn't need to make a comment about this. This is just typical white noise that gets out there in the industry.
“If Rory was willing to sit down and have a conversation with us, would we be happy to sit down with him? 100 percent, no different than any other player who would be interested in coming on and playing with us.”
LIV came close to landing a PGA Tour star
McIlroy might not be heading to LIV anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean other big names won’t follow the likes of Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith and Jon Rahm across the great divide.
In fact, Norman also said he came very close to securing the signature of a “top PGA Tour player” before they ultimately decided to stay put.
“It's understanding the facts about what LIV represents and what LIV can deliver on a global basis,” Norman continued. “It's up to you to determine it.
“I've sat down with one top, top PGA Tour player in his house with another member of my team, walking through the whole process, and he was so impressed. He said, ‘Well, that's not what we're told in the locker room. This is really impressive’.
“But he made the decision, he told me up two days later and said, ‘I've decided to stay where I'm at’.
“I said, ‘Happy days, you made a decision on fact. If you're happier over here, fine, stay there. If you want to come back and have a conversation with us, happy to do that’.”
A move to 72 holes under consideration
When Rahm made his decision to leave the PGA Tour, one of the things he said in his first series of interviews as a LIV member was that he had held discussions with senior figures about how the fledgling series could be improved.
The Spaniard suggested recently that a move to 72 holes could be the best way forward and reiterated that message alongside Norman, insisting it could help fans “trust” the LIV product more.
It could also pave the way for the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) to recognise it as an eligible tour. However, it would be quite a deviation from one of its USPs. What, then, does Norman think?
“I think from LIV's perspective, we're very open-minded about it, but you've got to understand there's economic impact about putting television on for 72 holes,” he said.
“Right now Jon hits the nail on the head. When you can tee up on Friday, it's a sprint to the end. There's no warm-up. I'm talking about from a player's perspective now.
“Sometimes you can have an average first round and then you come back and shoot a 64 and get yourself back into it, now you're into the weekend. If you really don't play well on Friday here, you have a hard time because the quality of play here is so high.
“It is intense pressure on it straight away because you have to perform immediately right off the bat.
“It's a great conversation to have. We will continue to have that conversation going forward. But we sit back and say, ‘What value do we get on putting on television on Thursday?’
“How do we build out in the future? How do we get more people, as the Premier says, to the golf course? Maybe it is Thursday and you allow another 30,000 people coming in on a Thursday.
“There are things that we sit back and look at to see what is the most optimal solution to make this a better and better and better event, and 72 holes is discussed.”
In the dark over merger talks
June 6, 2023, could go down as a significant date in the history of men’s professional golf. It is the day we saw PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund Yasir Al-Rumayyan sitting side by side discussing a route forward that would end the schism between the warring tribes.
It was something nobody saw coming given the quarrel that came before but almost 11 months on, little progress has seemingly been made towards a deal that will allow plays to move fluidly between tours.
Norman was notably absent as Monahan and Al-Rumayyan put on a united front and the Australian remains out of the loop.
“I would love to give you insight but I don't have any,” Norman added. “We at LIV are totally separate to that part of the negotiation. We at LIV are a standalone company being invested by the same investor interested in the game of golf.
“Our investor wanted to invest into LIV because he loved the opportunity of the franchise model, what he could do with it and how we can build it out on a global platform.
“So me specifically, I don't know what's going on over there. I really don't want to know what's going on over there because we are so fixated on growing and developing and building out what LIV is today and looking and doing our schedule for 2025 and going into 2026.
“Our responsibility is to look after our people, our players, and where we want to go. I don't have an answer.”
Recapping his ‘phenomenal’ Masters experience
Norman, who has experienced his fair share of heartbreak at The Masters, rocked up to Augusta National this year as a paying punter to support the LIV players.
It garnered plenty of attention due to the fact the green jackets reportedly refused to grant the 69-year-old a credential, but that didn’t stop the three-time runner-up from enjoying his time on the iconic grounds.
“It was phenomenal, to be honest with you. I went there specifically to support the boys. I wanted them to know that I was there for that reason, so I tried to get around to shake hands with each and every one of them to wish them the best.
“To walk with the patrons, I've never done that before in my life anywhere in the world. I think I walked one playoff here in Australia when a friend of mine was in the Australian Masters. But it was incredible.”
He also doubled down on his previous comments that the overwhelming feedback about LIV was positive.
“The support, the recognition, the comments that were made, it was almost unanimous for three straight days walking around with people,” he affirmed. “I had people with me, so I do have witnesses to the fact that that's what it was.
“To see it and to hear it and to hear the comments they made about what's happening to the game of golf and the go that LIV has brought to the game of golf, it was very, very strong for me. It was a very powerful three days.
“I must admit, Wednesday when I was going out there, I did leave the house with trepidation because I didn't know what to expect because I have a lot of great friends at Augusta National, I've got a lot of history at Augusta National, and I just didn't know what to expect.
“My first hour walking around, I went, whew, and I just relaxed and had a great time.”
