PGA Tour plotted to dump Greg Norman from LIV role in golf merger
Secret documents released by a US congressional committee investigating the planned alliance between the PGA and LIV has revealed a plot to push Australia’s Greg Norman out of the picture.
The bosses of the PGA Tour plotted to dump Australian golf legend Greg Norman from his role running LIV Golf as part of a stunning peace deal with the Saudi-backed rebel league.
The two competitions – the world’s top golf tour and the Norman-led upstart – shocked the sporting world last month by agreeing to join forces after a bitter 18-month dispute in which LIV poached leading players including Australian star Cameron Smith.
A US congressional committee is now investigating the planned alliance, and on Wednesday released secret documents revealing PGA Tour officials pushed for Norman to be ousted as a condition of the deal with the Saudi sovereign wealth fund that was bankrolling LIV.
Norman, the two-time major champion, has kept relatively quiet since the proposed merger was unveiled despite remaining as LIV Golf’s chief executive.
He was not involved in the negotiations and was only told of the deal minutes before it was announced by Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the boss of the Saudi government’s Public Investment Fund.
According to the cache of files released by the committee, a side letter was drawn up so that Norman’s employment would “cease immediately upon the management transition to the PGA Tour”.
A chain of emails also showed PGA Tour board members Jimmy Dunne and Ed Herlihy spoke to PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan about teaming up to replace Norman.
“Jimmy, I raised the idea with Jay of you overseeing LIV going forward. He really liked it,” Herlihy wrote on May 15.
“You and me,” Dunne replied.
And Monahan’s draft talking points to announce the deal to the PGA Tour’s policy board noted Norman would “be reassigned to an advisory role determined by PIF when the PGA Tour becomes the manager of the LIV Tour”.
The congressional committee said it was still seeking “significant information” about the negotiations, including to determine whether the side letter about Norman’s future was officially signed off.
According to ESPN, a LIV Golf official said the Saudi side rejected the idea of removing the league’s Australian boss, who has been a fiery critic of the PGA Tour.
While Norman declined to appear before the committee on Wednesday, saying he was travelling out of the country, chairman Senator Richard Blumenthal’s spokesman said: “We have requested testimony from Greg Norman, and unless there is a reasonable explanation for his absence … Greg Norman is who we expect to appear.”
The US Department of Justice is also investigating the proposed merger, amid widespread anger over the PGA Tour’s backflip to accept more than $US1bn of Saudi investment after condemning the LIV Tour as “sportswashing” for the government’s human rights abuses.
“It’s about how a brutal, repressive regime can buy influence – indeed even take over – a cherished American institution simply to cleanse its public image,” Senator Blumenthal said during Wednesday’s hearing.
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