Tranlate this title Greg Norman says LIV Golf was worth every ‘bullet in my back’ in spanish

Greg Norman has again defended his time with LIV Golf and says all the criticism he received was worth it because he believes the breakaway league changed professional golf.

The Australian became the first CEO and commissioner of LIV when the league started in 2022. His role quickly placed him in the center of one of the biggest disputes the sport had seen for years.

LIV signed several well-known players from the PGA Tour with large contracts and also offered big prize money. The moves caused a lot of tension between the two sides, while Norman also had public disagreements with Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods.

Norman left his day-to-day role in January 2025 when Scott O’Neil became LIV’s new CEO. His contract later ended, but the 71-year-old still believes the project changed the position of professional golfers and forced the traditional side of the sport to react.

Norman says the criticism was worth it

Speaking on The Real Deal podcast, Norman explained that giving players more value and more ownership was one of his biggest goals.

«Because there was only one way for me to get players’ values recognised, was to push it, push it, push it, push it,» Norman said.

The former World No. 1 also spoke about the criticism he received after becoming the public face of LIV.

«It was worth every howitzer, every .50-calibre bullet in my back, every hatred piece of mail I got.

At the end of the day, the game of golf today is better off because of what [PIF governor] Yasir Al-Rumayyan did with LIV.

The sport is better off.»

Norman claimed that nobody he has met while travelling around the world has personally told him he made a mistake by helping launch LIV.

His opinion about the effect of LIV is not new. The two-time Open champion said in January 2025 that PGA Tour players had also benefited financially from the pressure created by the new league.

The PGA Tour changed several parts of its model during the years after LIV arrived. It introduced more high-purse events and later created a player equity program through PGA Tour Enterprises.

The Tour also received a $1.5 billion investment from Strategic Sports Group in 2024. Players were given an opportunity to receive equity in the new commercial business.

Norman believes those changes support his argument that competition helped golfers, even those who never joined LIV.

Norman had a similar idea long before LIV

The Australian’s interest in a global golf league did not begin in 2022.

In 1994, Norman tried to create a World Golf Tour with Fox. The plan was for eight events featuring 40 leading players and much bigger purses than many regular PGA Tour tournaments at the time.

That idea did not happen after opposition from the PGA Tour and players such as Arnold Palmer. Norman, however, continued to believe golf needed a more global schedule and more financial ownership for players.

He said LIV later added something his old plan did not have, which was the team part of the competition.

«When LIV came along and had that team component to it, I thought, yes, I really like this model because, A, they were looking at the world and, B, they were trying to build team equity, team value in each one,» Norman said.

Professional golf looks quite different now from when Norman first took the LIV job.

Brian Rolapp became PGA Tour CEO in 2025 and was approved in June 2026 to become commissioner from January 2027. The Tour has also approved a new two-series competition model which is due to begin in 2028.

Norman described Rolapp as a «breath of fresh air» and said he likes the fact that the former NFL executive listens to players and takes time before making decisions.

LIV is also going through changes. O’Neil replaced Norman as CEO, while Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund decided to stop financing the league after the 2026 season. LIV later entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings as it looked for a new financial structure.

Norman is no longer making those decisions, but he remains clear about how he views his own part in the story.

The 71-year-old says he wanted LIV and the PGA Tour to exist in the same golf ecosystem rather than for one side to destroy the other. He also believes players now have more financial opportunities than they had before the split.

Whether all sides of professional golf will eventually find a way to work together remains unclear, but Norman has no regrets about the role he played in creating LIV.

The future of the controversial league is under the spotlight, but it seems that some difficult moments are ahead.