Greg Norman was not informed about the framework deal between Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and the PGA Tour until minutes before it was announced.
Now we know why.
If a definitive deal is reached, Norman, the Palm Beach Gardens resident and LIV Golf commissioner and CEO, likely will have no role in the new venture, according to the documents that were released ahead of Tuesday’s Senate hearing.
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Ron Price, the PGA Tour’s Chief Operating Officer, was asked by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who chairs the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, if Norman is “out of a job” if a deal is reached.
“If we reach a definitive agreement, we would not have a requirement for that type of position,” Price said.
Norman was not a part of the nearly two months of negotiations between the PGA Tour and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Kingdom’s PIF. The Tour’s team was led by commissioner Jay Monahan and included North Palm Beach’s Jimmy Dunne, a member of the policy board, and policy board chairman Ed Herlihy. Monahan credited Dunne with sealing the deal.
“Under the framework agreement, if we are able to move to a definitive agreement and it’s approved, the LIV Golf assets, of which Greg Norman’s currently the commissioner, would move into a new PGA Tour subsidiary, controlled by the PGA Tour, and those events will be managed by the PGA Tour,” Price said Tuesday.
“We’d have a complete infrastructure in place to manage events. It would make no sense to bring in that type of executive to manage what is now 14 series of events.”
Price and Dunne sat before the Senate subcommittee to defend the Tour’s deal with the PIF, which owns LIV Golf.
Norman has been silent about the deal. But soon after it was announced he was congratulating LIV employees and insisting the league will continue under its current format for years to come even as reports surfaced that Monahan would have the authority to disband LIV Golf.
“Congratulations! You changed golf, and you did it in less than a year,” Norman told his staff. “There will be no operational changes in 2023, 2024, 2025 and into the future. LIV is a stand-alone entity and will continue to be that moving forward. And that comes right from the top.”
Yet, the framework agreement states the PGA Tour will run the new entity, including all events.
“Critical in this framework agreement and the hope towards a definitive agreement is the control,” Dunne said Tuesday, referring to the PGA Tour.
Norman is not the only one insisting LIV Golf’s future is secure. Some of LIV’s highest paid stars are moving forward as if nothing is changing.
Jupiter’s Dustin Johnson said Al-Rumayyan told him LIV Golf will exist next year and the league is working on a full schedule for 2024. And Bryson DeChambeau, one of 12 captains, said his team is preparing to hire a general manager.
“We will not move to a definitive agreement unless the PGA Tour has complete control of the new entity,” Price said Tuesday.
“The PGA Tour will be the clear leader of golf.”
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: LIV Golf commissioner Greg Norman out of a job if PGA Tour-LIV finalizes a deal