Golf news: Greg Norman could be left on outer after LIV-PGA merger

Greg Norman could be the odd man out in golf’s LIV-PGA merger amid suggestions the path back for players such as Cameron Smith may not be as smooth as expected.

Cameron Smith’s return to the PGA Tour may not be the formality we first thought. Nor that of Marc Leishman.

According to an interview in Sports Illustrated with the man who brokered peace in golf’s civil war, the PGA Tour and its boss Jay Monahan have emerged from merger talks with all the power and they plan to wield it.

Monahan can apparently wind up LIV Golf if he so chooses. He can decide when and how LIV defectors return to the PGA Tour. He will hold the future of Smith and Leishman, along with LIV’s other players, in his hands.

If Monahan has walked away with as much power as PGA powerbroker Jimmy Dunne predicts, there will be no place for Greg Norman in golf’s new world order.

Norman was bullish in a call with LIV employees this week but Monahan has no time for the two-time major winner and the feeling is reciprocated.

The pair have gone hammer-and-tong for more than a year, sniping across the sport’s great divide. Norman claimed victory this week but Monahan — despite accusations of hypocrisy and calls for him to stand down — appears on safer ground.

Cam Smith’s path back to the PGA Tour might not be as simple as first thought.

As for Smith, who was reportedly paid as much as $140 million to join LIV Golf, his return would appear in the hands of Monahan. The tea leaves suggest he and the other LIV defectors will be allowed back, but only after paying a massive fine and serving some form of suspension.

Smith can no doubt afford it. He was given a king’s ransom to join LIV. Then again, he may be reluctant to part with his hard-earned under the circumstances given he has lived up to his end of the bargain, only to be caught off guard by a peace deal that arrived in the still of the night.

Again, Monahan appears to be the man in the driver’s seat. He sold his soul to merge the warring factions but finds himself atop golf’s administrative tree, albeit with his chairman from the Saudi side of the venture, Yasir al-Rumayyan.

Just exactly where the ultimate power resides will come out in the wash, although Dunne insists it is with Monahan. That may not necessarily be good news for the Australians who joined LIV Golf given Monahan upset many of the game’s biggest names by holding clandestine merger talks with the people who run the Saudi public investment fund (PIF).

The likes to Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods – who is yet to address the peace deal – will want their pound of flesh. Woods passed up a reported $1 billion to move to LIV.

Marc Leishman talks to media along with team mates Matt Jones, Cameron Smith and Jed Morgan.

He doesn’t need the money but the agreement will stick in his craw. If he and McIlroy don’t get satisfaction from Monahan, they will likely target the players who benefited from the Saudi largesse. We’re talking Smith, Leishman and assorted other LIV golfers.

For Smith in particular, much is at stake. He was in the mix to be No. 1 in the world before he pledged his allegiance to LIV. He has slipped to No. 9 but a return to the PGA Tour would give him the chance to stake a claim again.

It would also make him eligible for next year’s Presidents Cup and help his bid to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games, which would be under threat if he kept sliding in the rankings.

Smith is yet to speak and LIV Golf is yet to resume their tour – they are due to play in Spain later this month. Monahan would also seem to hold the future of the Adelaide event in his hands. If LIV is wound up, the event will be as well.

That would be a tragedy for golf in this country. Monahan and the PGA Tour have a long history of ignoring Australia. They have been urged to bring regular events to this country and been found wanting.

LIV promised to change that.

Originally published as Golf news: Greg Norman could be left on outer after LIV-PGA merger