The war of words between Greg Norman and Rory McIlroy is as good as done.
Although the ongoing negotiations between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf on their “framework agreement” have made little apparent progress, there is less animosity between the sides in 2025 than there was when LIV first entered the golf scene.
Now LIV is moving forward with sports executive Scott O’Neil as its CEO, replacing Norman, who will remain with the Saudi-backed golf league in an ambiguous role.
McIlroy, one of LIV’s most outspoken critics in the early days, said it was “probably a good move” and heaped praise on O’Neil’s resume.
“(O’Neil) has an amazing track record with what he has done in sports in terms of managing teams and groups of teams, ownership groups,” McIlroy told reporters at the Dubai Desert Classic. “He has got the right credentials to take over a sports league. I think for LIV it is probably a good move now they are established.”
O’Neil has served as CEO of the parent company of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and NHL’s New Jersey Devils, president of Madison Square Garden and CEO of amusement park and resort company Merlin Entertainments Group.
He was officially confirmed as the new CEO on Wednesday, with LIV Golf chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan saying in a statement O’Neil “has the passion, the tenacity and the vision to continue leveraging LIV Golf’s position as a pre-eminent, global sports and entertainment company and to lead our amazing teams and players for years to come.”
Norman, the 1986 and 1983 Open champion, often came off as divisive when helping LIV get off the ground. He called McIlroy “brainwashed by the PGA Tour” in 2022, putting Norman in the four-time major champion’s crosshairs.
McIlroy blamed him in part for golf’s “civil war,” saying later that year that he should “exit stage left” to allow the “adults” to patch up the sport’s schism.
The Northern Irishman commented on Norman in a much more pacifying manner this week.
“Greg took a lot of flak the first couple of years,” McIlroy said. “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.
“I honestly don’t know what the future holds for (LIV), but the move they are making, especially from an executive standpoint, it doesn’t look like they are going to go away anytime soon.”
Earlier Thursday, LIV announced a multiyear media agreement with Fox Sports that begins with the 2025 season, its third season as a league after it came into being as an “invitational series” during the summer of 2022.
McIlroy and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler also defeated LIV members Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka in an exhibition match in December, the first such exhibition match pitting stars from the sport’s two main entities.
McIlroy said O’Neil attended that match as well as the first night of TGL — the new simulator golf series founded by McIlroy and Tiger Woods — earlier this month.
–Field Level Media
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