LIV Golf supremo Greg Norman has again taken aim at critics of his breakaway tour by slamming the "deafening hypocrisy" over Saudi involvement.
Ever since the controversial venture was launched at The Centurion Club in June, a civil war has raged throughout the sport. Tensions have escalated further with a number of PGA Tour stars opting to jump ship to LIV, most notably Open champion Cameron Smith, where some are receiving eye-watering money.
Bur criticism of Norman and co has been rife, given the funding is provided by the Saudi PIF. The Australian himself has come in for criticism when discussing human rights issues in the Middle East, brushing off questions about murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Various legal action is also ongoing, with LIV claiming the PGA Tour funded the anti-Saudi protests at their events in 2022. On the contrary, the PGA have alleged their rivals compiled a dossier on the families of victims of the 9/11 terror attacks.
However, an article written on Monday by the New York Post caught the eye of Norman. The online piece stated: "Ever fly on a Boeing airplane? Buy tickets through Live Nation or play Electronic Arts computer games? Use Facebook? They’re all partially owned by the PIF and yet nobody bats an eyelid…"
The wording didn't escape Norman, 67, who shared the article and the quote used on twitter to his 123,000 followers. He also added: "Amen @nypost. The hypocrisy is deafening."
In a separate post, he highlighted another sentence in the article, writing: "And while the US government might have rightly condemned Saudi Arabia for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, it didn’t stop them striking a deal to sell $3 billion worth of Patriot missiles to Riyadh in August last year either.”
However, fans seemed unimpressed by Norman's stance, with @scbbsd asking: "Is this the new LIV directive? Keep posting underwhelming press releases?" @kevinmitchell50 added: "Maybe they should do more than 'bat an eyelid', then. You could start by opening your own eyes."
For all the animosity surrounding the LIV Golf saga, things took a very petty turn last week when one defector, Ian Poulter, hit out at the official Ryder Cup Europe Twitter account for not wishing him or Sergio Garcia a happy birthday. Norman acted quickly afterwards to send his own wishes to the Englishman.
