You’ve likely heard Greg Norman will no longer be the CEO of LIV Golf.
Norman confirmed the news in a recent interview with WISH-TV in Indianapolis as LIV was promoting a 2025 tournament in that city.
“Is there going to be a new CEO? Yes. There will be a new CEO. I’m fine with that. Will I always have a place and be involved with LIV to some capacity? Yes, I’ll always have that.”
According to a Sports Business Journal report, the new CEO is expected to be Scott O’Neil—the CEO of a London-based theme park company who previously served in executive roles for the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment. O’Neil is highly regarded in the sports executive world so it’s a serious hire by LIV. And it’s anticipated that he will also be commissioner of the league in addition to his CEO duties, replacing Norman in both roles.
None of this comes as too much of a surprise to those closely following pro golf’s warfare. Norman was the disruptor—the loud voice in the room that got everyone’s attention—but he wasn’t meant to be the long-term decision-maker for a league that intends to grow for many years to come.
As he tends to do, Norman said something else in his interview that bordered on lunacy. It was yet another time he stuck his foot in his mouth which has been a trademark of his since LIV came online.
“In the first couple years, everybody was lambasting us. And now, all of a sudden, everybody’s trying to follow us. And I think everybody should take a step back and say, ‘Oh, my gosh. how good has this been for the game of golf?’”
Counterpoint: Pro golf is actually in deep trouble
His claim is that LIV has been good for golf.
But who has it been good for?
It’s been good for Norman, a Saudi puppet who has bathed in attention—the egomaniac desires the spotlight even more than the many millions he raked in as CEO.
It’s been good for LIV players who took outrageous sums of money. With the notable exception of Bryson DeChambeau, most of them have sailed off into the sunset with their exhibition money while showing no signs of contending in majors.
It’s been good for PGA Tour players who are now making more money. It’s not as much as their LIV counterparts are making—but the Tour scrambled for an infusion of private equity money and will, in all likelihood, eventually be taking Saudi money as purses continue to rise.
It’s been good for agents, caddies, managers and others who are making more money because the players are making more money.
But the professional game being in a good place?
Not at all.
Let’s be honest: the pro game has become about how to get millionaires even richer. It’s about how the Saudi Arabian government can launder its reputation through golf, getting a seat at the U.S. corporate table. It’s about Jay Monahan, who is somehow making $23 million a year, jumps through hoops to keep players and sponsors happy. It’s about politics, power, influence.
It’s not about the fans. We are dead last on their priority list. They don’t care about you and me.
When Norman says that golf is in a good place, he just means that the rich people involved are getting what they want.
“We want to co-exist within the golf ecosystem which we are showing everybody,” Norman said.
Yet, “co-existing”—a euphemism on steroids—comes at the direct cost of diluting the game as talent spreads thinly and golf becomes so decentralized that the most popular active player is getting there by hitting golf balls over his house.
The fans aren’t getting what they want. If we were—if golf was really in such a good place—TV ratings wouldn’t be declining rapidly. And have you noticed that discussion about pro golf has fallen to a whisper? Tony Finau was rumored to be going to LIV (he shot down the rumor) and it barely made a sound on social media or foursomes around the world. Scottie Scheffler won his ninth tournament of the year last week and only the beat reporters of the game had anything to say about it.
If pro golf was really in a good place, the product would be thriving. The TV broadcast would be watchable, the competition would be entertaining and the fans would be engaged.
None of those is true.
It’s divided and failing in every metric except more money going to the people involved.
Greg Norman: Your legacy is division
Norman’s legacy as a player was being a talented underachiever who lost a lot more important golf tournaments than he won.
His legacy with LIV is divisiveness and greed.
A major reason golf’s civil war got so bloody was Norman’s incessant complaining and petty shots taken at the PGA Tour. He wanted vindication and retribution, particularly after his attempted breakaway tour of the mid-1990s was shot down.
When LIV started to poach Tour players, the Tour threatened (and later enforced) player suspensions as its only means of survival. Norman came back with a nasty letter where he said, “for decades, the Tour has put its own financial ambitions ahead of the players.”
It wasn’t the last time he would unnecessarily escalate the division. And Norman, who has never been said to be self-aware, didn’t realize the irony of his statement: He was putting his own financial ambitions ahead of the pro golf landscape.
Nobody was asking for the Tour to lose a dozen meaningful players, creating a watered-down version of the major leagues—all while LIV put on meaningless exhibitions that added virtually no value to the fan.
Norman didn’t stop at the division. He took egregious amounts of money from the Saudi government and did their bidding for them, like when he defended the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by saying—and I quote—“Look, we’ve all made mistakes.”
That’s greed and blindness. It’s obvious as his record when holding a 54-hole major lead.
If O’Neil had been leading LIV since Day One, the volume on the vitriol dial would have no doubt been lowered. The pissing contest wouldn’t have kept everyone from the negotiating table for multiple years (and, yes, the Tour is also heavily at fault for this as well).
If he wants to know what his legacy is, Norman can go out and ask the average golf fan.
They aren’t watching the game much outside the majors. They believe in the efficacy of politicians more than they believe in professional golf stakeholders. They are tired of the fighting, apathetic toward the competition and now getting more of their golf entertainment on YouTube.
Great job, Greg.
What you consider to be a victory lap is actually the biggest choke of your career.
Top Photo Caption: Greg Norman looks on during LIV Golf Andalucía. (GETTY IMAGES/David Cannon)
Krauter
7 months ago
Thanks for being objective. Many lesser writers would have let their personal feelings and biases towards a player **cough** Greg Norman **cough** determine their rankings. 🙄