Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods haven’t held back in their opinion of Greg Norman, who is set to be replaced as LIV Golf CEO, a position he has held since the launch of the breakaway tour
Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods have made their feelings abundantly clear on outgoing LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman.
Australian Norman has been the breakaway tour’s figurehead since its launch in 2022, but is set to be moved aside by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the financial muscle behind LIV, who are seeking a new CEO. The two-time major winner, 69, will move into another role within the company after his replacement is appointed.
Norman has rubbed PGA loyalists, including McIlroy and Woods, up the wrong way since the birth of LIV, which triggered a civil war in golf that is still to be settled as talks over a merger continue.
McIlroy declared Norman “needs to go” when the acrimony between the two factions was at its peak. The Northern Irishman said: “I think he just needs to exit stage left.
“He’s made his mark, but I think now is the right time to sort of say, ‘Look, you’ve got this thing off the ground, but no one is going to talk unless there’s an adult in the room that can actually try to mend fences’.”
While McIlroy’s stance towards LIV has softened in recent times, he believes Norman’s divisive conduct has done the PIF a “disservice”. Speaking earlier this year, ahead of talks between PIF chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan and Tour’s six player-directors, McIlroy said: “I think I’ve said this before, I have spent time with Yasir and the people that have represented him in LIV I think have done him a disservice, so [Greg] Norman and those guys.
“I actually think there’s a really big disconnect between PIF and LIV. I think you got PIF over here and LIV are sort of over here doing their own thing. So the closer that we can get to Yasir, PIF and hopefully finalise that investment, I think that will be a really good thing.”
Yasir Al-Rumayyan with Greg Norman, who is set to be replaced as LIV Golf’s CEO
Woods made a similar call for Norman to step aside after LIV and the PGA Tour took legal action against each other. Asked if LIV could co-exist with the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, the 15-time major winner said: “Not right now, not with their leadership, not with Greg there and his animosity towards the tour itself. I don’t see that happening.
“As Rory said, I think Greg’s got to leave and then we can eventually, hopefully, have a stay between the two lawsuits and figure something out. But why would you change anything if you’ve got a lawsuit against you?
“They sued us first. I see that there’s an opportunity out there if both organisations put a stay on their litigation but that’s the problem, they’ve got to put a stay on it. I think it has to start with leadership on their side.”
The animosity between Woods and Norman dates back further than the emergence of LIV. Norman once claimed that Woods wasn’t good enough to be selected by the US Presidents Cup team in 2011.
Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy are not fans of Greg Norman ( Image: Getty)
In 2019, following Woods’ incredible Masters victory, Norman claimed to have hand-posted a written note to Woods to congratulate him, only for the message to go unanswered.
“When Tiger won the Masters this year, I wrote him a handwritten note and drove down my road, maybe a quarter of a mile, and hand-delivered it to his guard at his gate,” Norman told Men’s Health in the same year.
“I said [to a guard at Woods’ property], ‘Hey, this is Greg Norman here. I’ve got a note for Tiger – can you please hand-deliver it to him?’ Well, I never heard a word back from the guy.
“When I won my first major championship, Jack Nicklaus was the first person to walk down out of the TV tower and congratulate me. I don’t know, maybe Tiger just dislikes me.”
