Greg Norman’s attempts to shake up professional golf have long drawn controversy, from his 1990s reforms to his tenure as LIV Golf CEO. While many criticized him for challenging the status quo, former tour pro Nick O’Hern now claims that the PGA Tour later embraced a strategy strikingly similar to Norman’s.

On the Talk Birdie To Me podcast, O’Hern and the fellow host Mark Allen were discussing Norman’s interview with Australian Golf Digest. “That goes back to when he was trying to do the world tour, wasn’t he? Back in the day, with the PGA against the PGA, well, not against the PGA Tour, but he wanted to start it with some of the players, and I think Jack and Annie and all that sort of said, ‘No, no, no, no. Don’t go down that route,” Nick O’Hern said.

Discussing Norman’s frustration, Allen noted that he had accomplished a lot by advocating for LIV Golf and its players, yet faced heavy backlash. O’Hern then touched on the long-standing tensions between Norman and the PGA Tour, hinting at the roots of their feud.

Norman attempted to launch a “World Golf Tour” (WGT) in the mid-1990s with Fox. The aim was to globalize the game. This included an eight-event schedule with high prize money and TV revenue sharing for players. Many people thought that the proposal was a threat to the PGA Tour. Therefore, the tour revolted. The PGA Tour strongly opposed the idea. The rhetoric grew so heated that a 1994 Washington Post editorial used phrases like “Maybe Greg Norman really is a shark at heart. And that’s no compliment,” “The World Golf Tour is an ugly idea, both crass and alien to golf,” and “At the moment, Norman makes Al Bundy look classy.”

Many golfers Norman approached rejected the idea. Nick Faldo, then world No. 4, was among the most vocal, dismissing the WGT as unworkable. “What world tour? It’s not going to happen. There is nothing concrete, and the proposals haven’t been thought out. Nothing makes sense.” Even the legendary Arnold Palmer said no to the tournament.

After Norman’s announcement, the Tour convened an evening players’ meeting, and Arnold Palmer delivered a scathing review of the World Golf Tour. “I was shell-shocked when I got out of that meeting,” said Norman, according to Sports Illustrated. “Are you kidding me? How about having an open discussion about this, guys? How about not slaying the dream and just shutting me down and ostracizing me in front of the other players?”

As a result, the WGT never launched, and instead, the PGA Tour later developed its own global events called the World Golf Championships with similar prize pools. However, tensions arose once again as Norman became the CEO of LIV Golf in 2021.

Norman accused the PGA Tour of copying LIV Golf’s format, including event scheduling and prize structures. He even shared an Instagram post about the same. The post featured an image of Jay Monahan and Greg Norman, and it had a text that read, “Jay: Hey, can I copy your homework? Greg: Sure, just make it look different so it doesn’t look to obvious.”

Besides Norman, even former World No. 1 Lee Westwood also said that he believes the PGA Tour is copying LIV Golf. Although Norman didn’t say this directly in his interview with American Golf Digest, O’Hern believes he hinted at those feelings.

Despite the criticism, Norman reportedly described his tenure with LIV Golf as a “mission accomplished,” leaving many to wonder why he felt that way.

Greg Norman calls his tenure with LIV Golf a success

Greg Norman believes LIV Golf reshaped the financial landscape of professional golf. He pointed out that the league’s significant investment pressured the PGA Tour to raise prize money, creating more lucrative opportunities for players worldwide. Norman expressed quiet satisfaction at seeing the Tour increase payouts and reduce field sizes in key events.

He told Australian Golf Digest, “Are they going to recognize LIV for doing that? No, but I do know that was a significant uptick for them. For them to play for more money, even in smaller fields, they reduced the size of the fields. I just said, ‘Well, there you go.’ The adoption, to some degree, of what we implemented has been accepted.”

Despite the criticism he faced, Norman remained focused on his strategy. In the end, he believes his approach achieved its intended impact, describing the outcome as a “mission accomplished.”