LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman believes Rory McIlroy should check himself in his strong stance against the Saudi-backed tour and instead take a look at how his own career has developed.
All but labelling McIlroy a hypocrite, Norman sees no difference between players jumping from golf’s existing tours to LIV Golf for more money, claiming McIlroy’s move from Europe to America was fuelled by much the same motivation.
“Well, my message is, Rory, you’re an independent contractor,” Norman told Piers Morgan. “You have the right to make your decision. Remember, Rory started on the European tour. Then Rory decided to leave the European tour to go play where all the money is, where I went to play, to the PGA Tour.
“Why did we do that, Piers? We did that because that was the only option we had as players. We had to go sign on to their rules and regulations. We couldn’t even negotiate their rules and regulations so we had to do the only thing we could possibly do – play the Tour. What we’ve done now is give them options.
“Rory, happy days, he can do what he wants to do. If he’s comfortable over there doing that, he’s an independent contractor, he can. If Rory wants to go to the Middle East and get appearance money to play in tournaments – happy days, go play in those Rory, that’s your choice.
“Don’t begrudge the other players for making a decision, that is a rightful decision under their independent contractual rights, to go and do it. It’s just a shame that people have taken this stance, when you look back over a period of time, they’ve pretty much done the same thing themselves.”
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