LIV Golf boss Greg Norman has hit back at Rory McIlroy’s persistent and scathing criticism of the controversial series as well as slamming what he calls ‘deafening hypocrisy’.
The lucrative Saudi-backed series is at the heart of the ongoing golf civil war with the PGA Tour and DP World Tours fractured after several of the game’s top stars were poached. LIV is funded by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and that vast backing has helped lure the likes of Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson.
Players who have joined the rebel series were subsequently handed immediate and indefinite bans from the PGA Tour. An antitrust lawsuit, filed by several LIV golfers that the series then joined itself, has also been filed against the PGA Tour with a trial date set for January of 2024.
McIlroy has long been one of the most vocal critics of LIV Golf, with his unwavering loyalty towards the PGA Tour in no doubt. The Northern Irish star has even unveiled plans for his own golf league venture alongside legend Tiger Woods in a bid to attract new audiences to PGA events and stave of the LIV threat.
But, speaking on Talk TV’s Piers Morgan Uncensored, Norman hit back at McIlroy’s criticism of the series and argued he should not begrudge players who chose to compete with the Saudi-backed venture.
"Well, my message is, Rory, you're an independent contractor,” Norman told Piers Morgan. “You have the right to make your decision. Remember, Rory started on the European tour. Then Rory decided to leave the European tour to go play where all the money is, where I went to play, to the PGA Tour.
“Why did we do that, Piers? We did that because that was the only option we had as players. We had to go sign on to their rules and regulations. We couldn’t even negotiate their rules and regulations so we had to do the only thing we could possibly do - play the Tour. What we’ve done now is give them options.
“Rory, happy days, he can do what he wants to do. If he’s comfortable over there doing that, he’s an independent contractor, he can. If Rory wants to go to the Middle East and get appearance money to play in tournaments - happy days, go play in those Rory, that’s your choice.
“Don’t begrudge the other players for making a decision, that is a rightful decision under their independent contractual rights, to go and do it. It’s just a shame that people have taken this stance, when you look back over a period of time, they’ve pretty much done the same thing themselves.”
Norman, who recently was on the receiving end of a frosty exchange from Republican Congress members over concerns regarding his backing and funding from Saudi Arabia, also slammed criticism from others, which he dubbed as “hypocrisy.”
He also alluded to the PGA Tour’s own commercial dealings, claiming they have title sponsors with their own Saudi relationships..
“The hypocrisy coming out of this is so deafening it’s ridiculous,” he added. “The PGA Tour has title sponsors that have a great relationship, a working relationship, for a commercial opportunity with the Saudi Government, with PIF [Saudi Public Investment Fund].
“PIF has done a lot of indirect and direct investment in a multitude of opportunities. There’s probably, here in this country [the USA], one third of this country are the benefactors of that. I don’t understand why it is that way sadly.
“I’ve got an idea - because we’re going in and challenging the monopolis, which is the PGA Tour. It’s been the one place to play golf for the last 53 years. All we’ve done is come in and shown another opportunity, another added opportunity, for the players to make their decision.”
