The More Greg Norman Talks The Better It Is For The Five Families
The More Greg Norman Talks The Better It Is For The Five Families
The LIV Golf CEO wants to grow the game he says is healthy. Plus, a pie analogy for the ages.
14 grows
4 grow the game or growing the games
5 golf spaces
6 pies or pieces of pie or slices across all sectors of the golf ecosystem
If you have better things to do than trudge through every word of Greg Norman’s press conference touting an additional $100 million in Saudi spending on the Asian Tour—trust me, you do—I will provide you the skinny version: the Shark genuinely believes pro golf is the game of golf.
As pros descend on the esteemed Royal Greens for massive appearance fees and potentially larger advances down the road, the Five Families worried about the existential threat may want to lay low and just let Norman keep talking.
While the Families have also been known to lose sight of reality and confuse the professional sport as the game, we also know the pro tours could disappear tomorrow and people would continue playing and loving the game. Golf has been played in some form for centuries but playing it for a living is relatively new thing. The majors would still matter as much as they do now and golfers would still buy equipment to play.
But we also know the sport is better off with a healthy professional game that gives back and inspires people. Yet in Norman’s LIV Golf world of trying to sell a new Saudi Arabia-backed golf entity, he’s rescuing touring pros from anti-competitive restrictions placed on them by stupid things like economic models. Free them with money from people who have no model other than to make you forget how awful they are, and voila, we have trickle down golf economics. At least in Norman’s world. Some of the time.
At other times he admits the sport is healthy and never better. So savor some of the nonsense he peddled from the podium announcing Asian Tour expansion into markets that will be feeder events should the “league” concept Norman and the Saudis stole ever takes flight.
Seated between Commissioner Cho Minn Thant of the Asian Tour and No. 1 player Joohyung Kim, Norman rattled off some splendid gibberish with his trademark flashes of ageism and dated b-speak. I will only interrupt on an as-needed basis. Which is often.
Hi Greg, welcome to where they let women eat in restaurants!
Is it afternoon or morning? Good afternoon, everybody. From my perspective, being in the game of golf for over 45 years, it's just a great honour to be sitting here.
Ok so he’s a little jet lagged.
I've been a global player. I've been very impressed and helpful in growing the game of golf across all continents that I could possibly go. When you're fortunate enough to be No. 1 player in the world because of your capabilities and your competitive level to get to that spot, it's no easy feat, but when you get there, you have a lot of responsibilities you have to assume, not necessarily inherit, but you assume, and that responsibility differs for many players.
Easy with those backpats, we don’t want you re-injuring the hand you almost cut off trimming your hedges.
My responsibility as the best player in the world was to grow the game of golf as much as I could possibly grow it, and to do that, you had to be eyes wide open and ears wide open to see what was going on around the world.
Oh do you now, you former best-player-in-the-world? Say more...