Tiger Woods may have last played his best golf during his 2019 Masters victory, yet he remains the undisputed center of gravity in the golf world, even when his competitive schedule has completely dwindled. And Greg Norman carried the flag for global golf even before Tiger ruled the fairways. Still, when these two icons collide, it always creates sparks bigger than the game itself. And a recent video from “Skratch University” brought a hilarious college moment back to life that explains the funny root of their icy relationship.

Tiger’s college teammate Conrad Ray shared the details about their freshman year, explaining that Tiger lived with a “random guy” from West Virginia who knew absolutely nothing about professional golf. That ignorance led to a massive miscommunication between Woods, a rookie who aspired to play in pro-level golf, and the Shark, aka Greg Norman. It happened right before Tiger played in his first Masters tournament as an amateur, and when the roommate picked up the phone, but didn’t recognize the famous Australian voice.

“His[Tiger Woods] roommate was some random guy from Virginia that didn’t even know what golf was. And it went on to—Tiger’s playing in the Masters that year—and he got a call from Greg Norman to schedule a practice round. And the guy didn’t know who Greg Norman was, and he forgot to pass along the message,” Ray shared with Dan Rapaport.

And these communication issues continued long after they left the college dorms, and Greg Norman tried to reach out after Tiger’s historic 2019 Masters victory. Norman hand-delivered a heartfelt handwritten note to the guard at Tiger’s Florida home, but never heard a single word back from Woods.

“Very few people know this: when Tiger won the Masters this year, I wrote him a handwritten note and drove down my road, maybe a quarter of a mile, and hand-delivered it to his guard at his gate. I said, ‘Hey, this is Greg Norman here. I’ve got a note for Tiger – can you please hand-deliver it to him?’ Well, I never heard a word back from the guy,” Norman said  to Men’s Health after Woods won the Masters in 2019.”When I won my first major championship, Jack Nicklaus was the first person to walk down out of the TV tower and congratulate me. I don’t know – maybe Tiger just dislikes me. I have no idea. I’ve never had a conversation with him about it.”

That’s why Ray quipped, “So, you know, Tiger still holds him…”

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Tiger Woods and Greg Norman didn’t always hate each other

The relationship actually started around Augusta National when they played nine holes together despite the phone mishap in 1995. Photographs from the day show Norman gesturing and offering advice on course strategy to the amateur Woods. Speaking on the incident, Norman shared, “I’ve always been respectful about what his father did for him. I played nine holes with him at his father’s at IMG’s request when Tiger was 14 or 15, and I was the No. 1 player in the world, to give an assessment of this kid. So, I have always been willing.”

However, things started turning ugly once Tiger Woods turned professional. In 1996, Tiger publicly declined an invitation to play in Norman’s signature “Shark Shootout” and chose to play the Australian Open instead. So when Tiger shot a 79 in the first round of the Australian Open, Norman said, “He got a shock when he shot 79. Perhaps he will appreciate why Australians play so well when they leave home”.

Then the rivalry hit a boiling point at the 1998 Presidents Cup when Tiger sought his revenge. The U.S. team was losing badly to the International squad in Melbourne, but Tiger specifically asked captain Jack Nicklaus for a match against Norman. “Yeah, it was — I wanted to play against him. Jack and Peter had talked about what kind of pairings would be great for the tournament. We were getting blown out, and.. I felt like I could handle and I could play, and I felt like I could earn a point for our U.S. side,” Woods later admitted.

That decades-old friction exploded again during the recent LIV Golf saga when Greg Norman became the CEO of the rival league and targeted Woods. But Tiger Woods publicly said Norman must step down from his post for the PGA Tour and LIV Golf coexistence and end the bitterness that divided the golf world. It seems crazy that a missed phone call started all this fire that divided the sports completely.