Shark comes clean on McIlroy LIV offer

LIV Golf boss Greg Norman has effectively ruled out a second Australian event but conceded his tour was “totally separate” to ongoing negotiations between the Saudi Public Investment Fund and US PGA Tour that could shape the sport’s future landscape.

Addressing a series of LIV issues in Adelaide on Wednesday, Norman also confirmed Rory McIlroy’s assertion that he was never offered a contract to join the rival tour but said officials would be “100 per cent” happy to sit down and talk with him.

McIlroy, whose stance on LIV has softened this year, declared his allegiance to the PGA Tour for life in response to the rumours.

Norman also revealed another “top, top” player” rejected an offer but that wouldn’t dissuade him from talking to the world’s best players.

“LIV never put an offer to him. We didn’t need to make a comment about this. This is just typical white noise that gets out there in the industry,” Norman said of the reported McIlroy offer.

“If Rory was willing to sit down and have a conversation with us, would we be happy to sit down with him? 100 per cent, no different than any other player who would be interested in coming on and playing with us.

“I’ve sat down with one top, top PGA Tour player in his house with another member of my team, walking through the whole process, and he was so impressed.

“But he made the decision. He called me up two days later and said, ‘I’ve decided to stay where I’m at’. I said, ‘Happy days. You made a decision on fact. Your door is always open; if you want to come back and have a conversation with us, happy to do that’.”

The success of the inaugural Australian LIV event moved other governments around Australia to declare their interest in possibly hosting a second LIV tournament, but Norman said the “partnership” created in Adelaide was enough for them for now. The Adelaide event is locked in until 2026.

“Has there been interest from other states? Yes, absolutely there’s been interest in other states,” he said.

“But we were in South Australia first, the Premier took it on, the responsibility of taking on LIV right from the outset not too sure about the result, and now because he’s done that and because South Australia has done that, we’ve got to look at that into the future as well too.”

That future could yet be determined by what have become delayed negotiations between the PIF and PGA Tour over the “framework agreement” that could determine what the sport looks like around the world.

The original date for a finalised version of December 31 last year was shifted out, but Norman said he had no visibility on the talks or what they meant for LIV.

“I would love to give you insight but I don’t have any. We at LIV are totally separate to that part of the negotiation. We at LIV are a stand-alone company being invested by the same investor interested in the game of golf,” he said.

“Investment dollars are flowing into the game of golf for the right reasons, not for the wrong reasons. Our investor wanted to invest into LIV because he loved the opportunity of the franchise model, what he could do with it and how we can build it out on a global platform.

“So me specifically, I don’t know what’s going on over there. I really don’t want to know what’s going on over there because we are so fixated on growing and developing and building out what LIV is today and looking and doing our schedule for 2025 and going into 2026.”