“But I think what he said was probably coming less from him than it was coming from people around him.”Norman was in Mexico himself last week for a ribbon cutting at a course he designed, and McIlroy’s words were clearly sticking in his gills.“This one cuts deep,” Norman said. © 2020 Swing by Swing Golf, Inc. All Rights Reserved. “So, as you fade away as a top player, you still own a team, like Formula 1. Convincing agents and managers that defecting to the PGL is in their clients’ best interest will be essential to the league’s success.While Woods himself hasn’t said anything publicly about the proposed league, it stands to reason that a large portion of the league’s viability among golf fans is tied to its ability to draw a star of Woods’ magnitude into the fold.“I’m not talking about the players very much, and that’s because, if the concept is right, the players will always be there,” he said. “My thought process, my vision was right. “I’m listening to Arnold, with [then-PGA Tour commissioner] Tim Finchem standing beside him, chest puffed out for a 5-foot-4 guy, and I’m thinking, ‘Are you kidding? By. Somewhere along the line, Norman believes, someone must have gotten in McIlroy’s ear.“When I first wanted to do the world tour, Rory was probably around eight years old,” Norman said. If everyone else goes, I might not have a choice, but at this point, yeah, I don’t like what they’re proposing.“I would like to be on the right side of history with this one, just sort of as Arnold (Palmer) was with the whole Greg Norman thing in the ’90s. Cash, and lots of it, is the price of admission if you’re trying to challenge the PGA Tour, but Norman says the league has an ace in the hole: the chance for select players to earn ownership equity in PGL teams.
It was in the 1990s that Greg Norman first mooted the idea of …
(The Raine Group did not respond to GOLF’s request for comment.) Craig Wood is the other. But the WGT never panned out, partially because the environment of professional golf wasn’t warm to the idea of players as independent contractors, unrestricted by any larger entity.“I’m not saying I’ve been vindicated, but my concept had legs and the timing was not right, perhaps because of the individuals behind the scenes,” Norman said. “So, either Rory watched what I was doing and has a hell of a memory, or someone coached him.”Spokespeople for Golf Channel and McIlroy both denied the accusation, but as it stands, McIlroy has been the biggest name in the sport to speak out against joining the PGL flat-out.
“Quite honestly, I do love the concept.”The proposed tour snapped the attention of the golf world in January when golf writer Geoff Shackelford reported that purse amounts on the 18-event, Norman sees several similarities between the PGL and his brainchild, the World Golf Tour: smaller fields, fewer events, bigger purses. Twitter. “It’s a subject that has left a lot of scar tissue for me.”That “Greg Norman thing” was the World Golf Tour, a globetrotting golf series, somewhat similar in structure to the PGL, that Norman proposed in 1994. He was also the first person in Tour history to surpass $10 million in career earnings. Great prices on Greg Norman Golf Clothing. (McIlroy was five when Norman announced his plans). It was probably just at the wrong time.”The PGL came to the attention of several pros early in 2020, shortly after representatives reportedly “I love the PGA Tour, but they definitely, these guys have exploited a couple of holes in the system the way golf at the highest level is nowadays and how it’s sort of transitioned from a competition tour to entertainment,” Rory McIlroy said at the Farmers Insurance Open. But the concept is not.”The would-be league is still two years away from its proposed launch.