Tiger Woods Slams Greg Norman, LIV: Not In Golf’s ‘Best Interest’

On Tuesday, golf great Tiger Woods took a big swing at LIV golf, saying he didn’t see how the new league served the best interests of pro golf.

Woods spoke out ahead of the 150th British Open at St. Andrews and professed his loyalty to the PGA Tour while siding with the British Open for banning Greg Norman from the tournament.

“I believe it’s the right thing,” Woods said of the R&A’s decision to ban Norman. “The R&A obviously have their opinions and their rulings and their decision. Greg has done some things that I don’t think is in the best interest of our game, and we’re coming back to probably the most historic and traditional place in our sport.”

Woods added that Norman tried to create a rival of the PGA 20 years ago, and it “didn’t work.”

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“I know Greg tried to do this back in the early ’90s,” Woods continued. “It didn’t work then, and he’s trying to make it work now. I still don’t see how that’s in the best interests of the game. What the European Tour and what the PGA Tour stand for and what they’ve done … and all the governing bodies of the game of golf and all the major championships, how they run it, I think they see it differently than what Greg sees it.”

The 46-year-old player went on to heap praise on the PGA Tour.

“I know what the PGA Tour stands for and what we have done,” he said, “and what the Tour has given us, the ability to chase after our careers and to earn what we get and the trophies we have been able to play for and the history that has been a part of this game.”

Then, the man who revitalized golf slammed the pros who jumped the PGA Tour ship for the Saudi-backed LIV.

“The players who have chosen to go to LIV and to play there, I disagree with it,” Woods exclaimed. “I think that what they’ve done is they’ve turned their back on what has allowed them to get to this position. Some players have never got a chance to even experience it – they’ve gone right from the amateur ranks right into that organization, and never really got a chance to play out here and what it feels like to play a Tour schedule or to play in some big events.”

Woods then lamented that some of the players in LIV will “not ever get a chance to play in major championships” and will “never get a chance to experience this right here, walk down the fairways at Augusta National. That, to me, I just don’t understand it.”

Woods also worried that the guaranteed money LIV offers would take some of the hunger out of players and prevent them from achieving greatness.

“What these players are doing for guaranteed money, what is the incentive to practice?” he exclaimed. “What is the incentive to go out there and earn it in the dirt? You’re just getting paid a lot of money upfront and playing a few events and playing 54 holes. They’re playing blaring music and have all these atmospheres that are different.”

Woods also blasted LIV for limiting the game to 54 holes, adding that young players need the challenge of 72-hole contests.

In the end, Woods said he feels that the way LIV is set up won’t make golf better.

“I just don’t see how that move is positive in the long term for a lot of these players, especially if the LIV organization doesn’t get world-ranking points and the major championships change their criteria for entering the events,” he concluded. “It would be sad to see some of these young kids never get a chance to experience it and experience what we’ve got a chance to experience and walk these hallowed grounds and play in these championships.”

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