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Greg Norman’s future as LIV Golf’s frontman looks increasingly bleak after documents showed that the proposed PGA Tour-PIF agreement would see the Australian terminated from his role.

Plans outlined in a quite remarkable 276-page trove of documents released ahead of a US Senate subcommittee on Tuesday revealed that the PGA Tour asked for Norman to be removed from his position as LIV’s chief executive.

Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods both called for Norman to exit the picture so a peace settlement could be initiated between the warring factions, months before the announcement of the so-called merger with the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.

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And it was noted in the bombshell documents that Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, wanted Norman fired as a matter of priority in the proposal.

Ron Price, the Chief Operating Officer of the PGA Tour, confirmed in Tuesday’s hearing that the plan has been to oust Norman when his circuit assume control of the LIV series.

In his testimony, Price said: “Under the framework agreement, if we are able to move to a definitive agreement and its approved, the LIV Golf assets, for which Greg Norman is currently the commissioner will move into a new PGA Tour subsidiary, controlled by the PGA Tour and those events will be managed by the PGA Tour.

“We have a complete infrastructure in place to manage events. It would make no sense to bring in that type of an executive to manage what is now a 14-series of events.”

Senator Richard Blumenthal said in his own opening remarks in Capitol Hill that a side-agreement had been arranged between the PGA Tour and PIF meaning Norman would be surplus to requirements in the new alliance.

An email dated back to May 24 from shows PGA Tour’s Policy Board chairman Ed Herlihy writing to PIF adviser Michael Kleinconfirming the proposed termination of both Norman and Performance 54, an agency that works closely with LIV Golf.

Herlihy’s email read: “In connection with the execution of the Framework Agreement, the Parties hereby agree that the services provided by Greg Norman and Performance 54 to LIV will cease upon the management transition to the PGA Tour contemplated by the Framework Agreement and is any event by no later than one month thereafter.”

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However, it was also confirmed by the PGA Tour that the side agreement to oust Norman was never actually signed.

And in an email written by Price to Monahan on June 4, it is noted in a “Talking Points” proposal that “Greg Norman will be reassigned to an advisory role determined by PIF when the PGA Tour becomes the manager of the LIV Tour.”

PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan has already confirmed that Norman had no knowledge of the top-secret truce deal with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour until just before the announcement was made to a shocked golfing world on June 6.

But Norman spent time with Al-Rumayyan at a recent LIV event in Valderrama and the message coming out of the tour is very much “business as usual”, with the 68-year-old still in a job as things stand.

It is increasingly unclear what the future holds for Norman in a new golfing ecosystem, but it is at the very least precarious.

topics

Greg Norman LIV Golf PIF PGA Tour

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.