Greg Norman never won the Masters Tournament, famously coming close on three occasions.
Now he's the CEO and commissioner of LIV Golf, the PGA Tour's rival league. As a two-time major champion, Norman used to be among the honorary, noncompeting invitees to Augusta.
That ended in 2023 after Norman joined the Saudi-backed tour. He wasn't invited by Augusta National Golf Club.
But he's back this year, according to a report from The Washington Post. Norman bought a ticket and was seen following some of the LIV players along with executives from the tour, according to The Post.
“Walking around here today, there’s not one person who said to me, ‘Why did you do LIV?’” Norman told The Post. “There’s been hundreds of people, even security guys, stopping me, saying, ‘Hey, what you’re doing is fantastic.’ To me, that tells you that what we have and the platform fits within the ecosystem, and it’s good for the game of golf.”
A number of players that defected to LIV are Masters champions, including Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson.
“I’m here because we have 13 players that won 10 Masters between them,” Norman said. “So I’m here just to support them, do the best I can to show them, ‘Hey, you know, the boss is here rooting for you.’”
DID YOU KNOW?
The third round of a golf tournament is known as "moving day." Players who make the 36-hole cut will try to put themselves in position to make a run Sunday for the green jacket.
At the Masters, Steve Pate and Tiger Woods share the record for most consecutive birdies in a row with seven. Pate did it in the third round in 1999, and Woods matched it in the third round of 2005.
BOOK REVIEW
Augusta, Texas
Author: Doug Stutsman
Pages: 207
Price: $18.95
Synopsis: Stutsman, a former staff writer for The Augusta Chronicle, shares his passion for all things Masters in his latest book. Stutsman takes an in-depth look at the 10 Texans who have won the tournament a collective 15 times. Readers will enjoy the tall tales from and about the winners from the Lone Star State, including exclusive interviews with Ben Crenshaw, Charles Coody and Jackie Burke Jr.
— John Boyette, executive editor
