In April, Greg Norman dropped the bomb that, at age 67, was planning a one-off comeback to play this year’s Open Championship in St Andrews.
“I’m filling out the registration form now,” he said at the time. “I think I’m going.”
Only he knows if he really thought he had had a gunshot. Norman has always had big dreams and pursued them with stubborn determination, but surely it was always a stretch, even for him.
Either way, the leader of the rupture LIV Golf, backed by Saudi Arabia, genuinely requested an exemption to play in the Open, 13 years after playing his last major.
This week, they won’t even let him through the door.
Watch all rounds of The 150th Open Championship July 15-18 EXCLUSIVELY LIVE at FOX SPORTS available at Kayo. Are we Kayo? Start your free trial now>
Players will play Thursday for the 150th Open Championship without Norman, whose request was flatly denied.
In addition, Norman, a two-time Claret Jug winner, was not even invited to the previous champion trials.
This week is monumental: a trip back to the old course, on the shores of the North Sea, where it all began.
It will be attended by anyone in men’s golf, from Tiger Woods, who is looking for a fourth title in St Andrews and supported Norman’s disdain on Tuesday, to Jack Nicklaus, who said goodbye to the sacred grounds in 2005 but has seen attracted by the gravity of the occasion.
These names are the tip of the iceberg, but the background does not include Norman that has been frozen.
Resentment shows the extent to which Norman’s already fractured reputation with the golf establishment has sunk.
Tiger Woods and Lee Trevino with Jack Nicklaus at the Celebration of Champions Challenge practice round before the 150th Open at St Andrews Old Course.Font: Getty Images
First, only America didn’t want it. Now, the Royal and Ancient (R&A), which rules the game in the rest of the world, doesn’t either.
“The 150th Open is an extremely important milestone for golf and we want to make sure the focus is maintained on the celebration of the championship and its heritage,” R&A said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, we don’t think that would be the case if Greg attended. Hopefully when circumstances allow, Greg will be able to attend again in the future.”
The resentment will come as no surprise to many given Norman’s costly efforts to shake the foundations of the gulf through Saudi-funded research by the Saudi government.
He is also having greater success than many imagined, with 21 of the 100 best golfers in the world, including Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka, playing in Portland last month.
Norman has wanted to work with established golf circuits, not against them, or at least that is his public position, rather than becoming the No. 1 public enemy.
He is also one of the best performers of the oldest major, and possibly the most prestigious, who won in 1986 and 1993 and earned another eight places among the top 10.
Only 14 players have won the Open Championship several times in the era of the big four.
No wonder the R&A rejection stings, even for the man with the toughest skin in the game.
“I would have thought that R&A would have stayed above all given its position in world golf,” he said.
“(It’s) petty, because all I’ve done is promote and grow the game of golf globally, on and off the golf course, for over four decades.”
Norman was rejected by R&A. Source: AFP
Ultimately, sides are being chosen in the Gulf Civil War and Norman, as the general of a rebel tour, will drop many players, journalists and governing bodies.
This is nothing new in the United States, where he has lived for decades and amassed a net worth of more than $ 500 million.
His relationship not only with the US PGA Tour, but also with his fans and broadcasters, has been strained for a long time, largely due to his records in the majors.
Norman took the nation by storm like a creepy rascal with a blonde in the 80s, but years later he would gain a reputation that betrayed his confident image.
The Queensland native was described as a “choker” due to the unenviable imperfection of his playing career of not having won a major in the United States, despite numerous calls.
This is raised, and used against him, regularly to this day.
Only Woods has eclipsed Norman’s 331 weeks as the world’s No. 1, but his legacy was firmly rooted in his losses, like when he broke a six-shot, 54-hole lead to lose the 1996 Masters.
Since then, prominent voices in the United States have tried to discredit Norman as a true greats of the game.
Norman kissed Claret Jug in 1993. Source: Getty Images
What should be Norman’s legacy, however, has become a debatable point for his involvement with the Saudi government and LIV Gulf.
His legacy is his tenacity to challenge the PGA Tour through rival competition, regardless of who pays the bill.
Norman could be right about many things in his long battle with the PGA Tour. The governing body strengthens its players, who essentially make the product, away from the lucrative media pie, and certainly treats its members as staff and not as free contractors.
The PGA Tour has even admitted that it is under investigation by the U.S. government for possibly engaging in anti-competitive behavior by issuing indefinite bans to members who played at a LIV Golf event.
Meanwhile, Norman also accuses the PGA Tour of being hypocritical as it has 23 sponsors doing more than $ 40 billion in business in Saudi Arabia, he says.
Norman’s mission at the helm of LIV Golf is also noble; he says he wants to grow the game around the world and give more freedom to players.
But does that justify accepting money from a disgusting regime that has funded LIV Golf as a sportswashing tool?
The overwhelming consensus in public space, as the airiness of R&A suggests, is no.
Curry Shows Golf Skills | 00:49
Asked earlier this year what Norman’s legacy will be, Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee said: “His legacy will be a man full of ardent hatred and a soulless disrespect for anything that doesn’t. be what he served.
“That he thought he was bigger than the game. Overwhelming his greed, calling it what the game needs, all to the needs of Arabia.
After Norman said “we’re all wrong” about the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate, The times’ Graham Spiers wrote, “What are you thinking about?
“Why has he come out of the sunset of his rich retirement to get involved in this mess? Aside from such awkward comments, all he’s doing is tarnishing his legacy.”
Still, Norman has made his decision to deal shamelessly with the Saudis, and he also feels comfortable with it.
It may seem like a lone pariah, but it’s worth noting that more than 50 golfers, and counting, have come to the same conclusion as Norman. And not to mention the LIV Golf stations and the scrap staff who now also make a living from Saudi money.
You suspect that many more might not be at all anti-LIV, though only in private.
But the golf gap is deep and it’s only getting deeper, as the guest list at this year’s Open highlights.
Norman after his first big win in 1986. Source: Getty Images
Norman is on one side of the growing chasm of the Gulf Civil War, driving the Australian further away from where he began.
Of this harsh truth, Norman is given periodic reminders.
On Monday, the game’s senior record holder and American legend Nicklaus went public against him, before Tiger Woods backed the R&A decision.
“Let me summarize this in a couple of words,” Nicklaus, 82, said. “First of all, Greg Norman is an icon in the game of golf. He is a great player. We have been friends for a long time, and no matter what happens he will remain a friend.
“Unfortunately, he and I don’t see what’s going on (with LIV Golf). I’ll basically leave it that way.”
Woods was less complimentary and more done.
“I think that’s right,” Woods said of Norman’s resentment.
“I know Greg tried to do that in the early 90s,” Woods continued. “Then it didn’t work, and now it’s trying to make it work. I still don’t see what the best interest of the game is. What does the European Tour and the PGA Tour represent and what have they done … and all the governing bodies of the game of golf and all the major championships, as they do, I think they see it differently than Greg sees it. ”
Earlier, Norman said Nicklaus was a “hypocrite” after he is said to have given his blessing to LIV Golf before stepping back.
Being on the other side of the fence like the beloved Nicklaus, who helped start the PGA Tour, and the legendary Woods says it all
But if Norman’s pariah status was to return home, that’s when that R&A phone call never came.
Now there is simply no going back.