LIV Golf has parted ways with Greg Norman, but the divisive former CEO of the breakaway circuit insists he’s left a lasting legacy that has benefited golfers throughout the sport.<\/p>\n
The Australian spearheaded the controversial split from the PGA Tour<\/a> in 2022, becoming one of the most polarizing figures in golf. The two-time major winner has a history of challenging the establishment dating back to his playing career, and the 70-year-old says he feels “proud” of the transformation he brought about during his three years as LIV’s commissioner.<\/p>\n Norman was removed from his position<\/a> by the Saudi Arabia-funded circuit<\/a> in January, with Scott O’Neil taking over, and his official ties to LIV ended in September. The organization has since implemented numerous significant changes, including a major overhaul of its competition structure.<\/p>\n However, Norman maintains that the massive disruption he triggered as the public face of the breakaway tour has ultimately helped players on both LIV and the PGA Tour.<\/p>\n Prize money has increased substantially because of the rivalry between the circuits, with billions in private equity capital flowing into the PGA Tour as a response to the wave of Saudi investment in professional golf.<\/p>\n Norman told the Wall Street Journal he’s pleased to have increased earnings for players, irrespective of their tour membership. “Just look at the impact that it’s had on the PGA Tour,” Norman said. “It’s changed for the betterment of the players.<\/p>\n “If Scottie Scheffler made $100 million a year, I’d be happy days. I wish I could make $100 million a year off my golf clubs … LIV wasn’t about Greg Norman. LIV was about what was right for the game of golf.”<\/p>\n Scheffler’s career earnings on the PGA Tour exceed $99 million, ranking him third all-time despite his first victory coming just three years ago. The majority of those winnings came after the PGA Tour substantially boosted its prize funds.<\/p>\n Sharing the article on Instagram, Norman elaborated on his time leading LIV, writing: “Being the antihero was never the easy road. But it was the right one.<\/p>\n “I knew stepping into LIV would come with criticism, controversy, and a few closed doors. I did it anyway because I believed all players deserved more \u2013 and today, you can see the impact across the entire game. For this I am proud of.”<\/p>\n Speaking to Australian Golf Digest last October, Norman revealed the personal cost of heading up LIV, saying: “I enjoyed my time at LIV. But I’ll be honest with you, it was hard. It was very draining on me. I was working 100-hour weeks.<\/p>\n DON’T MISS…<\/p>\n “I’m not going to say all the abuse was anything [of consequence], but what hurt me the most was the lack of understanding of why people would judge me and give the abuse they did.<\/p>\n “That was the thing that bothered me the most, because I’m the type of guy who will happily sit down and talk about things. And if I’m wrong, I’ll admit I’m wrong. But don’t judge me. Don’t judge what LIV was truly all about.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LIV Golf has parted ways with Greg Norman, but the divisive former CEO of the breakaway circuit insists…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,6673,20931,6674,3747,1974,82],"class_list":["post-299841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-golf-section","tag-greg-norman","tag-liv-golf","tag-pga-tour","tag-scottie-scheffler","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}