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Australian {golfing} legend Greg Norman has apparently been overlooked within the chilly after the bombshell announcement of a merger between golf’s PGA Tour and the LIV breakaway.
Norman, who had been the face of the Saudi Arabian-backed LIV Golf, was nowhere to be seen on Tuesday (US time) as information of the controversial deal broke.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi Public Funding Fund (PIF) will chair the brand new mixed mega-tour. On Tuesday, he informed CNBC that he phoned Norman simply minutes earlier than his tv look to announce the change.
“He’s conscious. I made a name simply earlier than this,” Mr Al-Rumayyan mentioned.
“After all, he’s a associate with us. All of the stakeholders with us had a name proper earlier than this interview.”
Norman is but to make any public remark. However he has been a central determine within the PGA-LIV warfare, taking photographs at PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan amid a authorized battle.
Final yr, Norman wrote to Mr Monahan after the Tour boss mentioned LIV defectors can be banned from the PGA Tour.
“That is only the start. It actually shouldn’t be the tip,” Norman wrote.
The bombshell deal between LIV, the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour is already proving controversial. PGA Tour gamers confronted commissioner Jay Monahan known as for his resignation throughout a fiery assembly on the Canadian Open in Toronto on Tuesday.
PGA Tour winner Johnson Wagner informed the Golf Channel there was loads of anger within the room after it was revealed that Mr Monahan had completed a take care of LIV Golf and the PIF with out consulting the gamers.
“It was contentious,” Wagner mentioned.
“There have been many moments the place sure gamers have been calling for brand spanking new management of the PGA Tour and even received a pair standing ovations.
“Essentially the most highly effective second was when a participant quoted Commissioner Monahan from the 3M [Open]) in Minnesota final yr when he mentioned, ‘So long as I’m commissioner of the PGA Tour, no participant that took LIV cash will ever play the PGA Tour once more’.
“It simply looks like plenty of backtracking.”
Australian PGA Tour veteran and main champion Geoff Ogilvy mentioned he received the sense the tour had rushed the announcement.
“[Mr Monahan] simply form of defined the construction, the way it’s going to look going ahead,” Ogilvy mentioned.
“He didn’t actually speak specifics.
“It was a troublesome assembly for each side, for Jay and all of the gamers, as a result of no one actually is aware of what that is going to appear like in the long run.”
Mr Monahan, 53, is the fourth commissioner in PGA Tour historical past and has held the place since January 2017. Whether or not or not he resigns, he is not going to maintain that title for for much longer.
With PIF making a capital funding within the entity shaped by the merger, Mr Al-Rumayyan will probably be its chairman. Mr Monahan would be the chief govt.
“Gamers have been mad, gamers have been calling for [his] resignation, and Jay sat there and took it like a champ, he actually did,” Wagner mentioned.
“He didn’t particularly reply plenty of questions of what the trail can be like for LIV gamers coming within the season of ’24.
“He sort of left it as much as his discretion … so plenty of gamers didn’t like that.”
Mr Monahan spoke to the media after the assembly with gamers in Toronto.
“I recognise that persons are going to name me a hypocrite,” he mentioned.
“Anytime I mentioned something, I mentioned it with the data that I had at that second, and I mentioned it primarily based on somebody that’s attempting to compete for the PGA Tour and our gamers.
“I settle for these criticisms. However circumstances do change.”
The deal reportedly was negotiated during the last seven weeks. Key gamers, together with former world No.1s Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy – who stood by Mr Monahan and the PGA Tour whereas sharply criticising LIV Golf – weren’t let in on the choice till the final minute.
“Tiger and Rory’s perspective is one which I perceive very effectively, and … will probably be part of my considering going ahead,” Mr Monahan mentioned.
Woods and the Canadian Open’s defending champion McIlroy have but to remark publicly.
-with AAP