'A Petty, Cheap And Childish Shot' - Norman On 150th Open Snub

Back in July, The R&A released a statement about Greg Norman's omission from The 150th Open Championship completely, with The R&A stating that: "We contacted Greg Norman to advise him that we decided not to invite him to attend on this occasion".

Despite being a two-time Claret Jug winner, the 67-year-old was not invited to either The R&A Celebration of Champions or, indeed, the Champions’ Dinner. Now, three months later, it seems that Norman is still not happy about the snub, as the Australian stated on Piers Morgan Uncensored that the actions of The R&A were "petty" and "cheap".

WHAT IS LIV GOLF?

Asked by Morgan about how Norman is dealing with backlash around LIV Golf, of which the Australian is the CEO, Norman stated that: "I'll be honest with you, at times, my heat shield gets a little bit weak because I am a human being. I've done a lot for the game of golf. I was number one player in the world for six years. I've done things in the game of golf, I promoted the game of golf, I've grown the game of golf globally. 

"I took a mission on myself as an individual player to fly all around the world. I was the first guy to do an exhibition match in mainland China. I was one of the first guys to go into the Middle East and, through my golf and business at the same time, I continue to do that. So, when they do these... What happened in the R&A was a petty, cheap, childish shot, to be honest with you. If you can't rise above it all then shame on you."

In his interview, Norman went on to add "if you are under pressure from other people exerting pressure on you, shame on you. For you not to sit down and have a discussion and to understand what the LIV business model is and to see how it sits within the ecosystem, shame on you. In business, remember we're a commercial entity, in business, you understand what your opponent's got, you understand what your competitor's got, unpack it all to see if you can actually work together within the system to make both entities better for each other, not try and destroy us. We haven't tried to destroy the PGA Tour."

After five LIV Golf events, the Saudi-backed series is yet to secure a TV deal or World Ranking points. Norman has been vocal about this and, recently, stated that the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) will become obsolete if they don’t include LIV Golf players.

In August, Norman sent a letter to the OWGR citing the strength of the fields in LIV events and, just a month later, the Australian doubled down on his thoughts as, in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, he claimed that: “It makes OWGR look obsolete if they don’t [accept LIV]. If they wake up at the end of the year and Dustin Johnson is 102 in the world, is that not a laughing stock to the OWGR? There’s two ways they can go: they can either fold, or they include LIV into OWGR.”

Surrounding the possibility of broadcast rights, well the rumours that LIV Golf is close to a deal with Fox Sports that would see it buying air time, look to be wide of the mark. LIV issued a statement calling the reports “incomplete and inaccurate”, stressing it is ahead of schedule in securing a media deal.