“I thought, You know what? I’m going to make it my business now to be as much of a pain in his arse as possible,'” McIlroy said in a lengthy interview in the Sunday Independent in Ireland.
In the interview, McIlroy also details how his relationship soured with long-time friend Sergio Garcia.
McIlroy and Tiger Woods have said Norman, the CEO and commissioner of LIV Golf, needs to be out of the picture for golf to have any chance of coming together, but the Australian great said that won’t be happening.
“I pay zero attention to McIlroy and Woods, right?” Norman said in an interview with British magazine Today’s Golfer. “It has no bearing or effect on me. I’m going to be with LIV for a long, long period of time.”
McIlroy has been taking shots at Norman since he won the Canadian Open in June, a day after LIV Golf finished its inaugural event outside London.
Most recently in Dubai last month, McIlroy said: “I think Greg needs to go. I think he just needs to exit stage left.”
McIlroy revealed in his interview that the rift began in February 2020 when talk first surfaced about a “Premier Golf League” backed by Saudi money.
McIlroy was the first top player to say he wasn’t interested, adding he wanted to be on the right side of history.
“He (Norman) wasn’t happy, and we had a pretty testy back-and-forth and he was very condescending. ‘Maybe one day you’ll understand’ and all this,” McIlroy recalled.
Then, in April this year, McIlroy watched an ESPN documentary on Norman’s collapse to lose the 1996 Masters and was moved enough to send Norman a message that included, “Hopefully it reminds everyone of what a great golfer you were.”
McIlroy said Norman had sent him a touching note after McIlroy lost a four-shot lead in the final round of the 2011 Masters.
“He was great,” McIlroy said. “So I said to him, ‘Watching it reminded me of how you reached out to me in 2011, and I just want to say that I’ll always appreciate it.
“It meant a lot. I know our opinion on the game of golf right now is very different, but I just wanted you to know that and wish you all the best.’
“So, a bit of an olive branch, and he came back to be straightaway: ‘I really think golf can be a force for good around the world. … I know our opinions are not aligned but I’m just trying to create more opportunities for every golfer around the world.’
“Fine. Really nice,” McIlroy said. “Then, a couple of weeks later, he does an interview with The Washington Post and says I’ve been ‘brainwashed by the PGA Tour’.
“We’ve had this really nice back-and-forth and he says that about me.”
Of his old friend Garcia, McIlroy said the relationship soured at the US Open when he said in an interview that week that players joining LIV were taking the easy way out.
He said he woke up on Friday of the US Open to a text from Garcia “basically telling me to shut up about LIV, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”
“I was pretty offended and sent him back a couple of daggers and that was it,” McIlroy said.
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