20 April 2023 , 15:30
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Greg Norman is never far away from golf's controversial battle between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, but the Australian had some rare kind words for his American-based rivals.
Since forming last summer LIV has certainly rocked the status quo of professional golf, much to the displeasure of the PGA Tour. Norman and co looked to lure in a whole host of big names, leading to Tour commissioner Jay Monahan issuing suspensions to those defecting to the breakaway circuit, in a bid to thwart of the LIV threat.
In a year like no other for the sport, golf's civil war has seen both bosses in Norman and Monahan exchange verbal blow after verbal blow amid the dispute.
Ahead of LIV's first ever event in Norman's homeland of Australia though, the former world No. 1 has appeared to somewhat soften his stance having shared some kind words for his rivals at the PGA and DP World Tour . He said: "PGA Tour has got a great tour. We’re happy for them.
"I’m happy for them. I grew up on the PGA Tour. So did Cam [Smith]. We grew up playing on the European Tour." Norman's comments were hardly a truce though, with the Australian insisting the breakaway circuit has no plans to back down in its bid to lead the way at the top of professional golf.
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PGA Tour boss Jay Monahan has been at war with Greg Norman and LIV Golf (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)"I hope they exist and keep existing, but it’s their choice of what they want to do, and if they want to keep putting up road blocks, we’re not going to go anywhere," he said. "We’ve got a great product. We’ve got investment dollars there today, investment dollars into the future that will continue to be there because of guys like this.”
This comes just days after Norman admitted it may well finally be time for the rivalling tours to 'sit down and talk' in a bid to end the feud that has polluted the world of golf over the past year. He told the Daily Telegraph : "Yeah, maybe we should sit down and talk.
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Greg Norman is the man in charge of LIV Golf (Getty Images)"It’s going to happen somehow and somewhere down the line. And why shouldn't it be sooner rather than later? They must realise by now that we aren’t going away.. We will continually keep going forwards. I have a list of players who want to join - names that will honestly surprise you - but there are contracts that have to be honoured and we will do this responsibly.
"We have relegation and promotion in place and it’s all going to plan." Claiming LIV will finally solve their world ranking problem too, Norman went on: "I think we’ll soon have world ranking points at our events, because otherwise those rankings become obsolete. They’ve already suffered immensely from us being shut out.