Australian golfing legend Greg Norman has apparently been left out in the cold after the bombshell announcement of a merger between golf’s PGA Tour and the LIV breakaway.
Norman, who had been the face of the Saudi Arabian-backed LIV Golf, was nowhere to be seen on Tuesday (US time) as news of the controversial deal broke.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) will chair the new combined mega-tour. On Tuesday, he told CNBC that he phoned Norman just minutes before his television appearance to announce the change.
“He is aware. I made a call just before this,” Mr Al-Rumayyan said.
“Of course, he’s a partner with us. All the stakeholders with us had a call right before this interview.”
Norman has been a central figure in the PGA-LIV war, taking shots at PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan amid a legal battle.
Last year, Norman wrote to Mr Monahan after the Tour boss said LIV defectors would be banned from the PGA Tour.
“This is just the beginning. It certainly is not the end,” Norman wrote.
On Wednesday (Australian time), hours after news of the bombshell deal, Norman made his first public comments via Twitter.
“A great day in global golf for players and fans alike,” he wrote.
“The journey continues!”
Tweet from @SharkGregNorman
Elsewhere, South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said Norman was “absolutely” bullish about LIV’s future. Mr Malinauskas, who brought an inaugural LIV Golf tournament to Adelaide in April, was in contact with Norman soon after the deal was announced.
“I’ve had text messages with Greg this morning,” he told Adelaide radio station 5AA.
“I have been on the phone to [the LIV] executive.
“From LIV’s perspective, it means a laying down of arms from the US PGA towards LIV. All of that hostility that was being projected towards LIV now presumably evaporates.”
LIV Golf has a contract with South Australia to host a tournament in Adelaide for the next three years.
“As far as Adelaide is concerned, we hope that it’s all upside,” Mr Malinauskas said.
“What it will mean is there’s a greater degree of cross-pollination of players between the US PGA tour and the LIV Golf tour, which means better events presumably.
“We’ve seen on the record this morning a commitment that LIV Golf will continue.”
British Open winner Cameron Smith captains an all-Australian team on the LIV circuit that also includes Marc Leishman, Matt Jones and Jed Morgan. The quartet are all yet to comment publicly on the peace deal, which is expected to pave the way for them to return to play on the US PGA tour.
Along with other LIV breakaways – including Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia and Brooks Koepka – they were effectively banned by the US PGA.
Australia’s Geoff Ogilvy described the deal as “probably inevitable” after attending a meeting between US PGA players and Mr Monahan at the Canadian Open in Toronto.
“He didn’t really talk specifics,” Ogilvy told NBC Sports. “Nobody knows what it’s really going to look like in the end.
“One of the feelings here is the players just want the [US PGA] loyal players rewarded.
“We didn’t really learn that much apart from the fact that there is going to be an alliance and the business structure is going to change.
“I don’t know if it’s all going to be happy families.”
PGA Tour winner Johnson Wagner told the Golf Channel there was plenty of anger after it was revealed that Mr Monahan had done a deal with LIV Golf and the PIF without consulting players.
“There were many moments where certain players were calling for new leadership of the PGA Tour and even got a couple standing ovations,” Wagner said.
“It just seems like a lot of backtracking.”
Mr Monahan spoke to the media after the players’ meeting.
“I recognise that people are going to call me a hypocrite,” he said.
“Anytime I said anything, I said it with the information that I had at that moment, and I said it based on someone that’s trying to compete for the PGA Tour and our players.
“I accept those criticisms. But circumstances do change.”
The deal reportedly was negotiated over seven weeks. Key players, including former world No.1s Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy – who stood by Mr Monahan and the PGA Tour while criticising LIV Golf – weren’t let in on the decision until the last minute.
“Tiger and Rory’s perspective is one that I understand very well, and … it will be a part of my thinking going forward,” Mr Monahan said.
Woods and the Canadian Open’s defending champion McIlroy have not made any public comments.
-with AAP
