Greg Norman could be moving out of the LIV Golf spotlight and more into the shadows, according to a recent report by The Telegraph.
Mark King, the one-time CEO of TaylorMade and current CEO of Taco Bell, is reportedly being pursued by the Saudi Arabia-backed circuit to be its new CEO. King attended multiple LIV events this season and is believed to have met with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund.
Michael Bamberger of the Fire Pit Collective wrote in September that King told him “in five years LIV Golf will be another tour among existing tours and that everybody will learn to get along.”
King can rightfully be credited with growing TaylorMade into one of the most influential and leading equipment makers in golf. He was with the company from the late 1990s until 2014, starting as a sales rep and working his way up to the top seat.
King was a showman and loved being on stage to unveil new products, and he even starred in the CBS television series, “Undercover Boss.” At the same time, sales grew, reaching $1.7 billion in 2013.
In addition to driving sales and pushing his R&D teams — TaylorMade debuted adjustable weights in drivers, white-crowned drivers and multiple driver releases under his leadership — King was a champion of broadening the appeal of golf and taking it in new directions. In early 2014, King pushed TaylorMade to donate $5 million to an initiative called Hack Golf which advocated for courses to consider adding 15-inch holes to greens to make the game easier for beginners.
On June 1, 2014, King left TaylorMade and was named president of Adidas North America. Before King left Adidas in 2018, the company had $4.2 billion in sales in fiscal 2017, which was up 27 percent increase from the previous year.
In 2019, King was named CEO of Taco Bell, a part of YUM! Brands.
