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If there’s to be a ceasefire between the warring PGA and LIV Golf Tours, then LIV Commissioner Greg Norman must be removed from his leadership role.
That was the hardball message from Tiger Woods Tuesday at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.
According to Woods, if there’s any chance for the rival tours to co-exist, then Norman has to be out of the picture as LIV’s commissioner and chief executive. The feuding tours would also have to settle their dueling lawsuits, he added.
“I think Greg has to go first of all,” Woods said. “Then obviously the litigation against us. Then our counter-suit against them…Then we can talk. We can all talk freely.”
When the 46-year-old superstar speaks, everyone in the golf industry, from players to networks to sponsors, listens.
Woods, who withdrew from this week’s tournament in Nassau due to a foot injury, is not just the PGA Tour’s career money winner with $120.9 million in winnings. Or a 15-time major champion. He’s emerged as an elder statesman and leader.
Since the advent of the PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf feud, Woods and business partner Rory McIlroy have become almost “shadow Commissioners” on the PGA Tour, sources said.
Norman has famously feuded with everyone from Woods to Jack Nicklaus. It’s no coincidence that Woods’ pointed comments came only weeks after McIlroy suggested Norman “exit stage left” from the Saudi-backed LIV Golf.
“He’s made his mark, but I think now is the right time to say you’ve got this thing off ground,” McIlroy said. “No one’s going to talk unless there’s an adult in the room that can actually try to mend fences.”
The Telegraph in London recently reported LIV weighed whether to replace Norman with Taco Bell CEO Mark King.
LIV denied the story, calling it “patently false.”
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