Sad time for Greg Norman. After dedicating three years of his life to building a league that can compete with the PGA Tour, the former CEO of the Saudi-based promotion was replaced. During his time in power, he fought tooth and nail to secure some of the biggest deals for LIV Golf, yet he couldn’t convince the Public Investment Fund to extend his contract past January 2025. But the new CEO, Scott O’Neil, has already made headlines after striking a deal with Fox Sports.

The experienced executive struck the deal to help his star players get better reach among the American audience. He also received recognition from LIV Golf’s rival league, the PGA Tour. Tiger Woods welcomed O’Neil to TGL and endorsed him to the golf community. Jay Monahan has also been actively trying to align with the new LIV CEO to finally complete the merger. However, that wouldn’t please Greg Norman, who has always disliked the PGA Tour and its leadership team.

So, to ward off any interested parties, Norman aligned with LIV Golf earlier this month to further enhance the product he worked so hard to build. Pushing his agenda for an independent and dominating LIV Golf, the Australian legend mediated a deal between the North Adelaide course and the league. As per the terms, the LIV Golf Adelaide event would move from The Grange Golf Club to North Adelaide Golf Course in 2028. And it will remain at the newly redesigned venue by Greg Norman till 2031. However, this was recently met with a lot of resistance from the local governing authorities.

Adelaide City Councillor; Keiran Snape was interviewed for InDaily where he confirmed his stance against the new deal. Snape said that he will not support the LIV Golf Adelaide’s move to North Adelaide Golf Course “no matter what”. His goal is to “secure some protections for the park lands and some transparency for residents and ratepayers.”

“If I could do that, I can sleep happy at night,” he said. In fact, he got to know about the deal to move LIV Golf from the Grange Golf Club to North Adelaide in 2028 via social media. Councillors are also set to receive a confidential briefing soon from the state government and that is something Snape looks forward to. “We might finally know what’s going on as of next week, but we won’t be able to share that for God knows how long,” he further stated.

He intends to circulate his motion amongst his colleagues. “If I’m not happy with what I hear, I’ll pull the trigger,” Snape shared. The motion will include a “consultation process be undertaken with residents of North Adelaide and affected stakeholders, including the North Adelaide Golf Club members, the Adelaide Park Lands Association and the Adelaide Park Lands Authority” and “that the removal of any significant trees because of a course design be kept to a minimum, and seek written commitment to preclude any increase to built form (buildings), permanent fencing of the newly developed course, and that temporary fencing be installed only for the minimum time necessary to stage the three-day event.”

But why is Snape unhappy with these developments?

Explaining why he doesn’t favor the move, the City Councillor stated the event “is funded by oil money and that goes against both the City of Adelaide Climate Emergency Declaration and also the state government’s Climate Declaration”. 

“We should be rejecting that. But as a side note, we should not be supporting Santos having sponsorship rights of the Tour Down Under.”

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If all this wasn’t enough, Snape is also concerned about Saudi Arabia’s human rights issues. Looks like that chapter of the lucrative deal for LIV Golf is far from over. And thus Greg Norman’s goal of getting one over Scott O’Neil and Jay Monahan has met with an abrupt disruption.

Presently, all eyes are on Scott 0’Neil as his recent actions have been quite rapid, and hopes for a promising future in the league. However, will Norman’s interventions affect the PIF-PGA Tour merger?

LIV Golf’s vision is much bigger than Greg Norman’s dream…

Greg Norman’s plans might be promising, but they don’t favor the bigger picture for Scott O’Neil and LIV Golf. The plan for PIF is always to follow through with the $3 billion merger with the PGA Tour. They have been constantly pushing the conversation ahead to get a stake in the biggest golf league in the world. Jay Monahan and Co. also believe that their partnership with LIV Golf will benefit the entire community.

That’s why he approached the 47th POTUS, Donald Trump for guidance. But all of this happened only after Greg Norman left the hot seat.

However, recent developments might change the dynamic between PIF and the PGA Tour. Monahan’s hesitance to work with Norman might affect the merger conversation. And if the former LIV Golf CEO does come back into the picture, there is a very good chance that the deal will get postponed even further.

That means further despair for the golf fans who were keenly waiting for the likes of Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, & Co. to return to the PGA Tour.

Do you think that LIV Golf’s continued affiliation with Greg Norman might delay the PIF-PGA Tour merger? Share your opinions in the comments section.