Greg Norman believes his arch rival Rory McIlroy is beginning to change his stance on LIV Golf, with the Saudi-funded series back in action for LIV Tulsa this weekend.
Norman and McIlroy's feud has been one of the most documented during golf's civil war between the breakaway circuit and the PGA Tour, with the pair very rarely holding back. When the idea of a Saudi-funded league was first proposed, McIlroy himself was quick to play down the plans, infamously labelling them 'dead in the water'.
Since then LIV Golf has seemingly grown quicker than anyone could have imagined - especially McIlroy - resulting in an ongoing tussle between CEO Norman and his fellow former world No. 1 rival.
However, on the back of a rough month for the four-time major champion, Norman believes McIlroy is beginning to 'see the light' when it comes to the LIV setup.
"He [McIlroy] is starting to see that this is not an exhibition match or a clinic like he said in the past - this is real," the Aussie told the BBC. "These guys are competitors. They want to win and Rory's no different so I'm glad Rory's starting to maybe see the light a little bit.
"I'm glad Rory's recognised that LIV has truly identified how antiquated the PGA Tour was. I'm glad Rory's recognising that LIV has been a leader in trying to get the PGA Tour to follow us. Why have we done that? Because of the players."
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As well as criticising the rebel league itself, McIlroy and Norman's disputes have often been personal, with the former calling on the latter to leave his post as LIV CEO in a bid to end the dispute between the two rival tours. Speaking last November the four-time major champion said: "I think Greg needs to go. I think he just needs to exit stage left.
"He’s made his mark but I think now is the right time to say you’ve got this thing off the ground but no one’s going to talk unless there’s an adult in the room that can actually try to mend fences.”
McIlroy has found himself at the centre of the dispute over the past 12 months, which he himself admitted has taken its toll on both his golf game and his mental wellbeing after missing the cut at last month's Masters and controversially withdrawing from the RBC Heritage.
He told Golf Digest: "It's not the golf side of things. If you had nothing else going on in your life, you could play every week there is to play and be totally fine. But it's just all the other stuff that was going on around the game of golf and being right in the middle of it.
"It sort of took its toll and, yeah, everything just sort of caught up with me this last month or so."
Despite his criticism McIlroy admitted in March that the emergence of LIV Golf had benefited players on both sides of the feud, after the PGA Tour brought in a whole host of lucrative changes to their schedule. Speaking at this month's Players Championship, he commented: "I'm not going to sit here and lie. I think the emergence of LIV or the emergence of a competitor to the PGA Tour has benefited everyone that plays elite professional golf."
