{"id":305546,"date":"2023-06-08T02:50:06","date_gmt":"2023-06-08T02:50:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=305546"},"modified":"2023-06-08T05:59:04","modified_gmt":"2023-06-08T05:59:04","slug":"normans-bizarre-message-to-staff-after-merger-shock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=305546","title":{"rendered":"Norman's bizarre message to staff after merger shock"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian great Greg Norman<\/a> has claimed the LIV Golf<\/a> \ufeff"business model" will remain the same despite Wednesday's bombshell merger announcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

LIV will now live under the Saudi Public Investment Fund umbrella alongside the PGA Tour<\/a> and DP World Tour<\/a> following seven weeks of secret negotiations that, supposedly, only two men were involved in.<\/p>\n

Norman was snubbed from the process despite being CEO of LIV, and was only informed of the announcement about an hour before it happened.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Aussie star conquers demons with epic century<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Rory McIlroy now feels like 'sacrificial lamb' amid LIV Golf deal<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Wrestling legend Iron Sheik dies aged 81<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

But in an address to his staff afterwards, he denied the merger will have a drastic impact on the LIV season, which will host 14 events this season.<\/p>\n

"The spigot is now wide open for commercial sponsorships, blue-chip companies, TV networks," Norman said, according to Sports Illustrated.<\/p>\n

\"Greg<\/p>\n

"LIV is and will continue to be a standalone enterprise. Our business model will not change.<\/p>\n

"We changed history and we're not going anywhere."<\/p>\n

The merger was put together by PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and Saudi Public Investment Fund governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan.<\/p>\n

Both men spoke upon announcing the deal, but neither could shed light on what the agreement means for the three individual tours or their players.<\/p>\n

The three tours combined will host 96 events this season, making it impossible for athletes to make themselves available for all.<\/p>\n

Norman's comments may, though, be a positive sign for Australia, which is figuring out what the merger means for the country's newfound partnership with LIV.<\/p>\n

\"SA<\/p>\n

LIV's inaugural event Down Under attracted about 75,000 fans across three days in Adelaide in April. Norman was instrumental in striking that deal with the South Australian government.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffI certainly think it's going to be a good outcome for Australian golf fans going forward," South Australian premier Peter Malinauskas told Nine's Today<\/em> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

"There's no \ufeffdoubt Australia has been deprived of high-level professional golf being played on our own turf for a long time.<\/p>\n

"We're excited about having an even bigger and better event next year, where we might see more \ufeffcross-pollination of players between the two tours."<\/p>\n

When asked if players will be able to float between LIV and PGA Tour events as part of this deal, Monahan said "I can't see that scenario".<\/p>\n

\ufeff\ufeffFor a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian great Greg Norman has claimed the LIV Golf \ufeff"business model" will remain the same despite Wednesday's bombshell merger announcement. LIV will now live under […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":305548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305546"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=305546"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":305550,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305546\/revisions\/305550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/305548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=305546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=305546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=305546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}