STERLING, Va. — LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman watches from a suite on the 18th green during day two of the LIV Golf Invitational – DC at Trump National Golf Club on May 27, 2023. | Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images
Norman, the CEO of LIV Golf, fired an email to PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan in early 2022 advocating for the rights of tour players.
Four months before LIV Golf held its inaugural event outside of London, LIV CEO Greg Norman sent a scathing email to PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan.
With the subject line, “You Can’t Ban Players from Playing Golf,” Norman knew that the PGA Tour would fight against the Saudi-backed tour in the following months.
“Surely you jest,” Norman wrote to Monahan on Feb. 22, 2022. “And surely, your lawyers at the PGA Tour must be holding their breath.”
“As has been widely reported, you have threatened the players on the PGA Tour, all of whom are independent contractors, with lifetime bans if they decide to play golf in a league sponsored by anyone other than the Tour.”
The Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), which reportedly has over $720 billion in assets, invested almost $1 billion to launch LIV Golf in 2022.
Due to Norman’s worldwide international fame, and his long desire to create an international golf league, the PIF selected the Australian to serve as the figurehead of the start-up league.
Photo by Luke Walker/WME IMG/WME IMG via Getty Images
AL MUROOJ, Saudi Arabia — Yasir Al-Rumayyan, president of the Arab Golf Federation, and Greg Norman, CEO of LIV Golf Investments interact during a practice round prior to the PIF Saudi International at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club on February 1, 2023.
As a part of its investment, the PIF paid millions to top PGA Tour players to join the start-up league, hoping to give it international acclaim and notoriety within the sporting world.
Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, and Bryson DeChambeau accepted Norman’s and the PIF’s offer, which gave each player generational wealth. Many more major champions, such as Sergio Garcia, Martin Kaymer, and Cameron Smith, also bolted for LIV in the summer of 2022, thus leaving the PGA Tour behind.
“Players have the right and the freedom to play where we like,” Norman wrote. “I know for a fact that many PGA players were and are still interested in playing for a new league in addition to playing for the Tour. What is wrong with that?”
Two days before Norman sent this email, Joaquin Niemann of Chile won The Genesis Invitational hosted by Tiger Woods at Riviera.
Photo by Tom Dulat/Getty Images
ST ALBANS, England — Joaquin Niemann of Chile tees off from the 4th hole during the LIV Golf London event at The Centurion Club on July 07, 2023.
Niemann was a budding young star on tour.
By that summer, however, Niemann took his talents to LIV Golf.
Consequently, the PGA Tour suspended the young Chilean and anyone else who left to play on the Saudi-backed tour, which Norman foresaw in February 2022.
“Simply put, you can’t ban players for playing golf,” Norman wrote.
“What is wrong with allowing players to make their own decisions about where to play and how often to play? What is so wrong with player choice? Why do you feel so threatened that you would resort to such a desperate, unwise, and unenforceable threat?”
Since then, LIV clearly threatened the PGA Tour and forced it to change its ways.
The tour tried to compete with the extensive LIV purses by increasing their own purse sizes and rewarding top players with lavish bonuses.
But that model was financially unsustainable for the tour, and with millions being spent on lawsuits fighting against LIV Golf and former PGA Tour players, Monahan and the tour felt obligated to turn to the PIF to try and bridge the divide.
Thus, after weeks of discussions, on Jun. 6, 2023, Monahan and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of PIF, announced to the world that the PGA Tour and the PIF agreed to enter a commercial partnership with each other.
A month later, on Jul. 11, 2023, two PGA Tour officials, Ron Price and Jimmy Dunne, testified before the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) to discuss the background of this agreement.
Photo by Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images
WASHINGTON — Ron Price, Chief Operating Officer, PGA Tour, left, and Jimmy Dunne, Board Member, PGA Tour, right, are sworn in before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Investigations hearing to examine the PGA-LIV deal, on the future of golf and Saudi Arabia’s influence in the United States, in the United States Senate.
As a part of the hearing, the PSI released a 276-page document, which included Norman’s email to Monahan on Feb. 22, 2022. The full note can be found in Appendix One.
Golf’s key stakeholders are still trying to piece together the future of professional golf and working to create a unified landscape.
It could take months to develop a solution as so many intricacies need to be worked out.
But from the get-go, Norman knew that LIV Golf would disrupt professional golf.
“Competition in all aspects of life, sport, and business is healthy, and the players deserve to be well compensated, which is why so many players have expressed interest in joining a new league,” Norman added in his email.
“But when you threaten to end players’ careers and when you engage in unfair labor practices with your web of player restrictions, you demonstrate exactly why players are open-minded about joining a league that treats players well, respects them, and compensates them according to their true worth.”
“Commissioner — this is just the beginning. It is certainly not the end.”
Now the end may be coming for Norman, as the Jul. 11 hearing revealed that LIV Golf might fire Norman as a part of the agreement between the PGA Tour and PIF.
But whatever happens to the former number-one-ranked player in the world, he was right from the beginning.
Norman foresaw Monahan’s bans and should be commended for doing so.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram @jack_milko for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.
