“Simply put, you can’t ban players from playing golf,” Greg Norman’s defiant words echoed through the golf world in 2022 as he challenged PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan’s authority to ban LIV Golf defectors. In a strongly worded letter, Norman warned Monahan that his attempts to “bluff and intimidate players by bullying and threatening them” would likely violate the law. Subsequently, Norman’s parting shot—“This is just the beginning”—now carries a different weight as recent developments suggest he might have been right about one crucial aspect.

Consequently, as we fast forward to 2025, the landscape of professional golf stands at a pivotal moment. Not really changed, but pivotal. Notably, Monahan, following a significant meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House, acknowledged progress toward “reunification of men’s professional golf”—a statement that essentially validates Norman’s stance on the illegality of player bans.

Jay Monahan’s recent statement validates Greg Norman’s idea

LIV Golf’s new CEO Scott O’Neil emphasized PIF’s likely investment in PGA Tour Enterprises as a catalyst for collaboration on Wednesday. “For us at LIV, we are hoping that (a PIF link with PGA Tour Enterprises) unlocks opportunity,” O’Neil said in Adelaide. “That may unlock opportunity with markets, with courses, with marketing partners, with television networks, with growing the game, with competition opportunities, with new formats.” You see, his statement focused on the financial gain, as opposed to what Monahan said recently.

“It’s the reunification of the professional game on one tour, with all the best players on it,” Monahan declared, making it clear that the negotiations’ goal extends beyond mere financial transactions. O’Neil’s vision of a collaborative future where LIV maintains its identity while accessing new markets and audiences has hit a significant roadblock with Monahan’s insistence on complete reunification under one tour—a stark reality check for Norman’s successor, indeed.

Nevertheless, this stance represents a significant shift from the Tour’s original position of permanently banning LIV defectors. Moreover, legal experts have consistently argued that the Tour’s bans could violate antitrust laws by constituting an illegal group boycott. Consequently, this legal vulnerability, combined with the Department of Justice’s scrutiny of the merger talks, has forced a dramatic shift in the Tour’s position.

This control is evident in the preliminary frameworks for player reinstatement. Rather than equal collaboration, the PGA Tour was setting the conditions: proposing suspensions and financial penalties for LIV players, determined on a case-by-case basis. PGA Tour, with its latest statement, still seems to hold an upper hand. Even the recent creation of exemption categories for LIV players in major championships appears to align with the Tour’s vision of gradual reintegration under its terms, not LIV’s hope for coexistence.

Ironically, this evolution validates Norman’s 2022 legal challenge when he stated, “When you try to bluff and intimidate players by bullying and threatening them, you are guilty of going too far, being unfair, and you likely are in violation of the law.”

The current negotiations’ focus on player reinstatement comes with clear conditions—all paths lead back to what Monahan envisions as a unified tour under the PGA Tour’s governance. Even Rory McIlroy agrees.

Rory McIlroy validates Monahan’s ‘unification’ dreams

Rory McIlroy, once a staunch PGA Tour defender and current member of the transaction subcommittee for tour negotiations has had a visible change of heart about LIV. He has been talking about bringing the game together a lot, as opposed to calling out LIV, and LIV golfers. At Pebble Beach, he said that new administration was “going to be a bit more deal-friendly.” Then at Genesis, he emphasized on how everyone should be looking ahead, not backwards.

“So I think everyone’s just got to get over it and we all have to say, O.K., this is the starting point and we move forward. We don’t look behind us, we don’t look to the past, whatever’s happened, happened. And it’s been unfortunate. But reunification is the best thing for everyone. So if people are butthurt or got their feelings hurt because guys went (to LIV Golf) and whatever, who cares? Let’s move forward together and let’s just try to get this thing going again and do what’s best for the game. From my point of view, I don’t think it’s complicated,” the Northern Irishman said.

The ultimate irony of Norman’s warning lies in how the very act of banning players has led to negotiations that will likely result in their return. As professional golf moves toward what Monahan calls “reunification,” the power struggle’s lasting impact may be a more flexible, global sport where players have greater freedom to choose where they compete—exactly what Norman argued for in his 2022 letter.