If you were going to receive a verbal kicking in the world of golf then the two people that you would least like to be on the other end, with their spikes grinding you into the dirt, would be Tiger and Rory. One played nine competitive rounds of golf in 2023 but continues to move the needle while the other is fast becoming the face (and voice) of the PGA Tour.
For all the superstars in the US Ryder Cup team the 33-year-old from Northern Ireland is the go-to guy when the Tour want to get a message out there. For all his multi millions Rory’s the one who talks the best game and the one most of us can relate to; he speaks our language, he gets things right and he’s the No. 1 player in the world.
In recent weeks McIlroy has claimed that Greg Norman ‘needs to exit stage left’ and that any compromise, whatever that looks like, won’t happen until ‘there’s an adult in the room that can actually try to mend fences’. Last week Woods said something very similar, almost verbatim, citing the upcoming lawsuits and the need for the Aussie to go. The underlying message being that the PGA Tour would seemingly be keen to get round a table and talk but that Norman would not be part of any chat.
In an ideal world this would probably be the precursor to some conversation but this is LIV Golf and this is Greg Norman. If you want the perfect leader to brush off any criticism then you’ve got it in Norman. The 67-year-old has made a career out of being a polarising figure in the game and not seemingly giving two hoots about anyone’s opinion. He’s already responded to Tiger’s comments and he’s going nowhere. If you want to shove anyone in front of the world’s media and have them deliver the same message, again and again, then it’s Norman. He’ll put his foot in it, he’ll be factually incorrect but he’ll keep on going. Most of us would call it arrogance, he’d likely describe it as strong leadership.
Just imagine for a second if LIV Golf had gone for someone less divisive than Norman. Imagine, and this is a big leap of faith, that they had somehow got hold of Fred Couples and he was the face and the voice behind the breakaway circuit. Imagine how, with an easy smile and less aggressive tone, more people might have listened more at the start of all this. All the big statements of world domination and the ‘force for good’ nonsense would have been diluted to something slightly more palatable.There would be no public beef with Tiger, there…
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