Site icon Side Action

Greg Norman Rips PGA Over ‘Hypocrisy’ When Defending LIV Golf

BSabitt
Former PGA star Greg Norman sent a scathing letter to PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan when standing up for players who want to play in Saudi league

Greg Norman, of Australia, walks to the 17th tee during a practice round on the Palmer Private course at PGA West for the Humana Challenge golf tournament in La Quinta, Calif., Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Greg Norman is going right after the PGA.

Last weekend, Rory McIlroy made his opinion on Norman (who serves as the CEO of LIV Golf) very clear when lamenting the fact that he now has one more career win than Norman did in his time.

And over the weekend, Greg Norman fought right back against McIlroy, the PGA , and anyone else who takes issue with the Saudi-backed LIV tour.

“Look, I’m disappointed people go down that path, quite honestly,” he said via The Guardian. “If they want to look at it in prism, then why does the PGA Tour have 23 sponsors doing 40 plus billion dollars worth of business with Saudi Arabia? Why is it okay for the sponsors? Will Jay Monahan go to each and every one of those CEOs of the 23 companies that are investing into Saudi Arabia and suspend them and ban them? The hypocrisy in all this, it’s so loud. It’s deafening.”

To push LIV Golf forward, Greg Norman said he’s putting in an application to have the LIV golfers acknowledged in the world rankings.

“We’re actually applying for OWGR points right now. We’re actually putting in our application probably over the weekend, if not Monday,” he said. “And it’s a very compelling application. We’ve worked very, very closely with the technical committee understanding all the components of what you need to apply for it. And quite honestly, it’s going to be interesting because on the board that votes on the OWGR points for anybody new coming in, here’s Jay Monahan. Now, it’ll be interesting to see if Jay Monahan recuses himself from that vote because of what he said on television with Jim Nantz the other day. So it’s very interesting and it’s sad to be, you know, putting that additional exerting pressure on it because our tour is a good tour. It’s supported, it’s got an incredible field. Our point should be that if we get the OWGR out points, then everything else takes care of itself.”

Obviously, LIV Golf has taken on a fair share of criticism, and has by far a worse cast of members than the PGA. But nonetheless, Greg Norman is adamant that LIV isn’t going anywhere, and neither is he.

“We’re not going anywhere, we want to do what’s right for the fans, for the players and for our commercial business model,” Norman said. “We are going to forge forward. And there’s been a lot of obstacles, Brian, no question about it. There’s been a lot of obstacles the PGA Tour’s thrown in our path, but you know what? We’ve worked around it because golf is a force for good.”

Welcome to the game outside the game! Follow us on our Sideaction Twitter handle, Instagram, and Facebook for the latest on sports and pop culture news across the web!

 

 

🔥 Hot from Side Action 🔥