LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman has hit back at Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods after the pair called for the Australian’s resignation in order to allow peace talks to commence at the top end of men’s professional golf.
“I pay zero attention to McIlroy and Woods, right?” Norman told Today’s Golfer. “They have their agenda for whatever reason. They’re saying whatever they want to say. It has no bearing or effect on me. I’m going to be with LIV for a long, long period of time.”
Hero World Challenge tournament host Woods took the opportunity in his Bahamas pre-tournament press-conference last week to call for Norman’s head atop the Saudi-backed series.
“I see that there’s an opportunity out there if both organizations put a stay on their litigation,” Woods said. “But that’s the problem… they’ve got to put a stay on it. And whether or not they do that or not, there’s no willingness to negotiate if you have a litigation against you.
“So if they both have a stay and then have a break and then they can meet and figure something out, then maybe there is something to be had. But I think Greg has to go, first of all, and then obviously litigation against us and then our countersuit against them, those would then have to be at a stay as well. So then we can talk, we can all talk freely.”
Woods’ comments echoed those of his great friend Rory McIlroy who had earlier called for Norman’s divisive presence to “exit stage left”.
“I think Greg needs to go,” McIlroy 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.”
However, McIlroy and Woods will have to get used to Norman sticking around for a while longer yet, though the Great White Shark insists peace talks can still happen under his reign as LIV CEO.
“Of course it can happen under my leadership,” Norman said. “I mean, Tiger might be a messenger, right? Who knows. All I know is we are going to keep doing what we’re doing with LIV, and we are just going to keep moving forward.”
In Norman’s opinion, outside the criticism of McIlroy and Woods, not one person has voiced an issue with his leadership to date.
“No matter where I go in the world, nobody – not one person – has said what I’m doing is stupid or wrong,” Norman claimed.
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