Greg Norman, the golfer, was always a polarizing figure in the sport. His energy didn’t only exude on the course, but he was also always looking for ways to improve golf. And being one of the top golfers on the PGA Tour, he had the liberty to have an opinion, and he heard from the officials. His strong ambitions for development might have been the root cause behind everything that happened in his life decades later.

Being an Australian golfer, Norman was always inclined towards the international circuit more than sticking to American competition. And his remarkable success in the 90s gave him the platform to propose an idea that might have been too ahead of its time. Through Greg, the World Golf Tour was born in 1994; well, at least as a concept. He pushed hard for the PGA Tour to take its best players on the international circuit. However, the then-commissioner, Tim Finchem, didn’t pay much heed to Norman’s ideas. And that’s when his animosity with the PGA Tour really grew strong.

2012 was the last time Norman played on the PGA Tour. However, he had been focused on participating in a global schedule more often for many years before then. 8 years after his last appearance, rumors of a concept similar to LIV Golf first started floating around. An 18-event Tour with 48 players divided into 12 teams; each of them gets a guaranteed paycheck. As elusive as it first seemed in 2020, it was also very intriguing. Especially to those who performed consistently but failed to get a result as often. Some of them had even lost their prime playing years to competing with Tiger Woods. It was time for them to get their money’s worth. However, the actual league was still not set up.

At that point, Greg Norman & the Saudi’s were only meeting the players, trying to gather possible interested parties. You can also say they were testing the waters to see what kind of response such a format would get. Early adaptations of the league were called the Premier Golf League, similar to what the English call their top soccer league. And one of the first players who was willing to test the format was Phil Mickelson, as he played in the Saudi International sanctioned by the DP World Tour. Many interested investors of the eventual LIV Golf were in attendance to watch Mickelson in Saudi Arabia, including one of the officers from the PIF.

Having Phil by his side and with the interested parties in attendance, Greg was confident about the opportunity. He told Sports Illustrated, “It’s just a matter of getting all the right components together, whether players stay together.” It took him some time to gather the remaining 53 players and alternates. And he tried to reach some of the biggest names in golf. Even Tiger Woods was approached for a possible proposal should he decide to switch. He said, “My team’s been aware of it and we’ve delved into the details of it and trying to figure it out just like everyone else.” However, he compared it to the World Golf Championship and stated that it was just another league that was trying to get the best players.

While Woods didn’t join Norman, the LIV Golf CEO was still desperate to make more collaborations. He even approached the DP World Tour CEO, Keith Pelley, for a possible merger. However, Pelley turned down the deal and instead chose to ally with the PGA Tour. While the ex-LIV Golf CEO may not have won over the DP World Tour leaders, he had still created enough buzz over the last few months with his strong approach. And by the end of 2020, Norman had gathered just enough players to begin the first season of LIV Golf. That’s when the big announcement came.

On May 4, 2021, reports came in of a new super golf league being launched. Rumors also suggested that Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson had already signed with the league. By the end of the summer, they had allied with the PIF and decided to call the league LIV Golf. By October of the same year, LIV Golf was officially announced in New York, and Greg Norman was confirmed as the CEO. They also confirmed that it will be connected with the International Series of the Asian Tour and provide a gateway for talent from the continent to progress through the ranks. The league was to launch in the spring of 2022.

Over the next few months, LIV Golf got a lot of attention. After a lot of back-and-forth, with dialogues from their biggest promoter, Phil Mickelson, they announced their schedule of eight events in March. Instead of the LIV Golf League, they introduced the first season as the LIV Golf Invitational, an open-for-all Tour that allows everyone to join and find their place in it. However, their plans were met with a strong response from the PGA of America, as Jay Monahan & Co. didn’t permit its players to participate in the LIV Golf events. LIV events were marked as unsanctioned. That was enough for Greg to take his next masterful step. And he played it perfectly.

To add fuel to the fire, Norman released a statement stating, “Sadly, the PGA Tour seems intent on denying professional golfers their right to play golf, unless it’s exclusively in a PGA Tour tournament. This is particularly disappointing in light of the Tour’s non-profit status, where its mission is purportedly to promote the common interests of professional tournament golfers. Instead, the Tour is intent on perpetuating its illegal monopoly of what should be a free and open market. The Tour’s action is anti-golfer, anti-fan, and anti-competitive. But no matter what obstacles the PGA Tour puts in our way, we will not be stopped. We will continue to give players options that promote the great game of golf globally.”

That was enough to attract the likes of Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Charl Schwartzel, and Lee Westwood. Schwartzel won the first LIV Golf event in London, capturing his first title in 6 years. Watching him win millions just after his first LIV Golf victory caught the attention of many top players. Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau signed for LIV Golf. By the end of the season, they have assembled a 48-player field that meets their expectations, featuring some outstanding names to fill each squad. And so began the dynasty of LIV Golf, the modern golf league with a shotgun start format that ensures the event doesn’t last for a grueling 9 hours.

As a concept, it had all the makings of the future of golf. Strategically, Greg Norman and his team had built something that could have beaten its rivals and garnered more fanfare. But as glorious as its beginning was, the first three seasons were just as grueling due to complicated leadership dynamics.

Greg Norman’s vendetta against the PGA Tour destroys his dream project

It’s no surprise that LIV Golf was a product of Greg Norman’s hatred of the PGA Tour. But his animosity towards his former employer didn’t wear off even after he had built a competing league. In fact, it only grew stronger as the years went by. While his goal was to build an alternate league that would be more dynamic and exciting than the PGA Tour, he still wanted LIV Golf to be on the same level. That means there were a few parameters that Norman needed to meet before he could consider his dream a success. One of them was getting his tournaments and players’ OWGR authorization.

During the 2022 Hero World Challenge, after the first season of LIV Golf had concluded, Tiger Woods had mentioned, “Greg [Norman] has to go” for his league to co-exist with the PGA Tour. Perhaps there was some truth to it, as the man who created it was the one who was holding it back for the first few crucial seasons. Instead of focusing on growth, Norman was battling the OWGR, trying to sanction LIV Golf events. After all, he had promised his players that he would ensure their participation in the league added value to their status in golf. However, Greg was also hellbent on not changing the model he had built to adapt to the requirements of OWGR to get sanctioned. After a lot of back-and-forth, they withdrew their application in late 2024.

Alternatively, Norman’s aspirations to make LIV Golf a world league also reduced its opportunity to gain revenue. To this day, the PGA Tour gets almost 10 times more viewers than LIV Golf for its ordinary field events. If the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are on the field, then the ratings go through the roof.

After three years of trial and error in trying to top the PGA Tour, Norman’s regime with LIV Golf finally came to an end at the beginning of 2025. Scott O’Neil took over from him as the new CEO, and the former boss was pushed to an advisory role. Since then, a few LIV Golf pros have spoken out about how he was not the right man to lead the league. Jon Rahm told the media, “I think, unfortunately, there’s been a little bit, possibly a little too much bad blood between Greg and maybe the governing bodies.” That could have been one of the major reasons his efforts to authorize LIV Golf were met with such resistance.

Nevertheless, a few hours ago, Greg Norman confirmed that he fulfilled his role as a consultant for LIV Golf and is no longer tied to the company. However, his complete exit from LIV Golf was not met with a huge tribute from grateful employees. Instead, many of the players he signed ignored his final message.