Former LIV Golf CEO and PGA Tour legend Greg Norman sat down for an interview this week in the wake of the news that LIV Golf had hired Scott O’Neil to replaced ‘The Shark’ effective immediately. During the interview, Greg Norman issued a spicy debate challenge to Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, the two faces of the PGA Tour, on how LIV Golf has substantively improved the lives of PGA Tour players.
Greg Norman’s debate challenge came in an interview with Brad Clifton and Rohan Clarke of Australian Golf Digest and he is adamant that he’d win the debate against Tiger and Rors and spelled it out.
When asked if he would ever be willing to sit down with Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods to discuss the public falling out between them, the near constant barrage of criticism lobbied at LIV Golf, and whether Tiger and Rory themselves have financially benefitted from the launch of LIV Golf, Greg Norman said “I would love to.”
Norman went on to say “I would love them to recognize the fact that – like Tiger with his PIP money [Player Impact Program] – that only came because of LIV, right? So Tiger benefitted from that. Rory’s definitely benefitted from that. I would love to sit down and talk to them about it, no question about it. Because I’m not a judgmental person and you only learn the facts and truth when you hear the other side of it.”
Greg added “but, yes, would I like to sit down with them? Sure, absolutely. And you know what? I’d win the debate.”
Of course, it it’s not difficult to point to ways that Tiger and Rory have benefitted from PGA Tour changes that were direct results of LIV Golf competition. There are 125 full-time PGA Tour card holders for the 2025 season. Would the other 123 card holders also be able to say that LIV Golf has improved their lives?
Looking strictly at TV ratings, PGA Tour viewership on Sundays was down 19% YOY in 2024. Saturdays were down 17%. CBS saw a 17% decline in the 16 events it it had rights to. Overall, Sunday viewership came in at 2.2 million viewers on average and Saturdays saw a 1.5 million viewer average according to an SBJ report from last Fall.
Meanwhile, an average of only 89,000 viewers tuned in last Fall to watch the LIV Golf Tour Championship. That’s 18,000 fewer people than cram into Michigan’s stadium on Saturdays during the College Football season… In fact, there are 10 college football stadiums that hold more fans than those that tuned in to watch Sunday’s broadcast of the LIV Golf Tour Championship, according to Golf.com’s report last September.
All of that is to say that it sure seems likely LIV Golf has hurt PGA Tour ratings while being unable to capture TV viewership of its own. That could change with LIV’s new Fox Sports TV deal but that remains to be seen.
So while Greg Norman is quick to point out that competition from LIV Golf has financially benefitted Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, the same cannot be said for every PGA Tour member that relies on (the waning) exposure.
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Greg Norman Issued A Spicy Debate Challenge To Tiger Woods And Rory McIlroy After LIV-PGA Saga
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