After Tiger Woods called for the removal of Greg Norman as the head of LIV Golf in order for the Saudi-backed series to have some chance of peacefully coexisting with the PGA Tour, the star golfer’s old buddy Sergio Garcia fired back with some comments of his own in an interview with the Spanish website Marca .
Garcia, who last made news when he embarrassed himself by dropping out of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in England in September so he could attend an Alabama-Texas football game in Austin, defended Norman, who Rory McIlroy has also verbally attacked, by going after PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.
“They say that Greg Norman has to go, and Monahan has to stay or go?” Garcia said in Spanish, via Sports Illustrated. “It’s very easy to say those on the other side have to go. And those on your side? There are also people who have done things wrong. You have to look at everything. Greg Norman is our CEO and we support him. We all wish we could come to an agreement. There are people who could have done wrong in both places, but it seems that there are only bad guys on one side.”
It’s no surprise Garica is going to bat for Norman and LIV Golf as he gave up his spot on the PGA Tour, quit the DP World Tour (formerly known as the European Tour) and removed himself from future Ryder Cups as a player, vice-captain or captain in order to join the controversial circuit. Since joining the new tour, he’s earned more than $6 million in addition to whatever he was paid to jump ship from the PGA Tour.
Garcia’s defense of Norman comes weeks after rumors that Saudi Golf Federation head Yasir Al-Ramayyan was considering removing Norman from his role as the CEO of LIV Golf and replacing him with Taco Bell executive and former TaylorMade CEO Mark King. Those reports were refuted by LIV Golf managing director Majed Al-Sorour. “Greg Norman is our CEO and Commissioner. Any suggestion that changes are being made to Greg’s title or role is patently false,” Al-Sorour said last month, per Golf Digest.
As long as Norman is in place, it seems as if LIV and the PGA Tour will have to continue to agree to disagree. At least that’s what Garcia seems to think.
“First everything has to be settled,” he said. “It’s not easy now that we’re involved in a legal process and also because everything we want is prohibited. If you’re sitting with someone who every time you propose something is a ‘no,’ how are you going to reach an agreement if only what they say is worth it? I don’t know how we will reach an agreement.”
He may have a point.
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