There is no love lost between Greg Norman and Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. But in spite of their checkered past, the Shark was happy to praise what the pair of current golf stars were able to do with the successful launch of TGL.
TGL debuted this year on ESPN and was a resounding success. Although ratings fell throughout the season from some eye-popping highs (including an audience over 1 million viewers for Tiger Woods’ first appearance), both ESPN and the upstart league had to be happy with its performance this winter. And even more important than that, the innovative concept proved to be a win with golf fans and casuals alike, adeptly mixing a sim golf environment and the arena’s real-world green complex when skeptics wondered if it was even possible. The players cared and had fun, the broadcasts were entertaining, and the sport received a much needed energy boost in the midst of the years-long split between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
Greg Norman had been at the center of that split as the former LIV Golf CEO. And along the way, he ran afoul of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, who were the two stars trying to carry the PGA Tour flag. Woods and Norman’s broken relationship has been well established for years. And McIlroy was not shy about firing darts at Norman when the PGA-LIV feud was at its hottest.
But in comments recorded by the Palm Beach Post from an appearance at the Society of the Four Arts in the city, Norman was willing to let bygones be bygones in praising LIV… and the private equity dollars that they were able to bring into golf.
“Private equity now has true value in the world of sport,” Norman said. “It’s happening all around the world. It’s happening in cricket, in Australia and in India. It’s happening in other places. I’m just so proud of the fact that that’s happened to golf, where billions of dollars are being moved into the game of golf because of private equity.”
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“The TGL is great,” Norman said. “Everybody asks me what I think of the TGL, and I say it’s fantastic. It’s more stuff, more golf, it’s more innovation. It’s taking things to a new level. It’s catering to a new market. It’s doing this, doing that. There’s no angst or animosity from my perspective. It’s just magnificent now people are seeing the value that golf can give them.”
The former two-time major winner has been a disruptive force in the sport for decades, going back to the early 90s and his desire for a spin-off world tour. LIV Golf was able to provide that, as well as billions of dollars from the Saudi PIF. And Greg Norman was the face of it, arguably winning the personal battle that he was fighting for so long.
TGL was launched not just thanks to the vision of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy but also because it was backed by mega billionaires who own sports teams and other luminaries. Arthur Blank, Fenway Sports Group, Steve Cohen, and a bevy of athletes and celebrities from Serena Williams to Steph Curry to Woods himself have ownership stakes. With his business empire surpassing the heights of his golf career, money has always talked when it comes to Greg Norman. So maybe it’s not all that surprising to hear his praise of TGL and his longtime rivals. It may not be a breakthrough in mending fences in the professional golf world, but maybe it’s a start.
