Tiger Woods Calls Out LIV’s Greg Norman [19th Hole]

It’s hard to decide who is right and who is wrong when it comes to the LIV vs PGA TOUR tit-for-tat.

This week Tiger Woods called out LIV’s CEO Greg Norman and said Norman “has to go”.

Can the two tours co-exist?

Well according to Tiger Woods they cannot at “least not right now”. Woods went on to say it’s an issue of leadership that is causing the spat. “With Greg there and his animosity towards the Tour itself. I don’t see that happening.” Wow!

LIV Golf hosted a series of tournaments earlier this year. It paid huge amounts of money for TOUR players to jump ship and sign on with the professional tour financed in part by the Public Investment Fund and the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia.

At the time the new tour was announced; originally called the Premier Golf League it drew the angst of PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan. Monahan said golfers would have to choose between one tour or the other. Certainly no leeway on the Tour’s part.

Earlier this year a group of players who left for LIV filed an antitrust lawsuit. Shortly after the initial suit was filed LIV added its name to it as well. The foundation of the suit surrounds the PGA threatening lifetime bans on players who would tee it up in the LIV Golf series. Basically, the TOUR was telling those players to get lost if they decided to make a few extra dollars (think millions) for a couple of weeks’ worth of tournaments.

To add insult to injury the Tour went so far as to threaten any sponsors, vendors, and agents who would persuade players to move over to LIV.

A countersuit by the TOUR was filed in September, stating the players and LIV were in breach of the TOUR’s contract with its players. My golf game, my right!

I think Greg has to go, first of all, and then, obviously, the litigation against us and then our countersuit against them, those would then have to be at a stay as well,” said the 15-time major champion. “Then we can talk, we can all talk freely.”

During an interview with FOX News Norman said Tiger Woods turned down somewhere between $700 – $ 800 million to join the series.

Even Rory McIlroy has called for Norman to stand down.

In August, both Tiger Woods and Rory Mcilroy announced a joint venture between the two golfers; TWRW Sports. A conflict of interest? Not from the PGA TOUR’s point of view.

So what’s the bottom line?

The PGA TOUR feels threatened. Some of the best golfers in the world have left the TOUR for LIV and any loss of viewership means a loss of revenue. Talk about being blindsided!

The folks over at LIV have deep, very deep pockets and can force the PGA TOUR to come to terms with the two co-existing or this thing can fester. Think of the NFL – AFL debacle back in the 1960s

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