Greg Norman on his time at LIV Golf and the criticism of the rebel golfing series

Norman revealed he was proud of the changes LIV had brought to the world of golf — even if his reputation copped a battering along the way.

Norman was the inaugural CEO of LIV Golf from 2021 until he left in January this year and played a crucial role in enticing the likes of Phil Mickelson, Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Australians Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman to the Saudi-funded league.

“I enjoyed my time at LIV. But I’ll be honest with you, it was hard,” Norman told the Australian Golf Digest.

“It was very draining on me. I was working 100-hour weeks. I’m not going to say all the abuse was anything (of consequence), but what hurt me the most was the lack of understanding of why people would judge me and give the abuse they did.

“That was the thing that bothered me the most, because I’m the type of guy who will happily sit down and talk about things. And if I’m wrong, I’ll admit I’m wrong. But don’t judge me. Don’t judge what LIV was truly all about.

“I knew there were going to be a lot of headwinds. I didn’t anticipate the magnitude of those headwinds because… as time went by, those headwinds were created by misperceptions. (But) once the Strategic Sports Group (SSG) came in and once the other private equity money started rolling in, that was the catalyst for everybody to calm down a little bit, in my opinion. They started to see that what LIV did – bring private equity into the game of golf for the first time in 53 years – was a positive.”

While LIV Golf continues to struggle for revenue, The Athletic reported LIV Golf posted a $942m loss in 2024, Norman believes the hard yards he led in recent years would lead golf to a brighter future.

He cited the increased prize money on the US PGA tour as one of the legacies of his time at LIV Golf.

“When you look back on the past 12 months, there’s been a realisation that all those investment dollars have done great things for the institutions as well as the players, in all parts of the world,” he said.

“Even with the PGA Tour (boosting its prizemoney with elevated events), I was quietly happy when I saw that, because the players benefited from it.

“Are they going to recognise LIV for doing that? No, but I do know that was a significant uptick for them. For them to be able to play for more money, even play in less competitive fields – they reduced the size of the fields – I just said, ‘Well, there you go.’ The adoption, to some degree, of what we implemented has been accepted.”

Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods were two of Norman’s biggest critics for leading the LIV revolution, but even McIlroy could recognise the important role the Australian played in golf when he announced his departure in January.

“Greg took a lot of flak the first couple of years,” McIlroy said at the time.

“He is probably one of the only guys in golf who could have taken on that role. He got it off the ground, and you have to commend him for that. Now it’s time for someone with a bit more experience to take over.”

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Norman said Mickelson was the player who showed the most gratitude towards him when he announced he was stepping down as LIV CEO.

“There were certain players that really came up to me and there were a few others that came up to me and just thanked me for what I did for them, for being the tip of the spear, for taking it all on,” says Norman.

“Phil (Mickelson) took (plenty of heat) too, but I took it on behalf of all the guys, so that to me was part of the job – I had to do it, right? And if you’re going to make meaningful change, running through a brick wall without getting bloody, that’s not going to happen. So, the guys did reach out to me – not all of them, no – but probably Phil was the one who really was very open about it and appreciative of what I did do. ‘Poults’ (Ian Poulter) was the same, along with ‘Westy’ (Lee Westwood).”