LIV Golf commissioner Greg Norman was spotted on the grounds of Augusta National on Wednesday, a year after the Australian was publicly snubbed by The Masters organisers.
Norman, who won two Opens during his playing career and finished tied for second at The Masters on three occasions in the 1980s has been the public face of the leadership of the Saudi-backed LIV Tour.
While all the heads of the world’s main golf Tours were invited last year, Norman was not included on the guest list, a decision which he had described as “petty”.
But the 69-year-old was spotted among the crowd at Wednesday’s practice session by the Washington Post who said he was there as a ticketed spectator.
Norman’s pugnacious leadership of LIV, who have recruited a number of top stars from the established PGA Tour, has made him a divisive figure but he said he had received a warm welcome from fans.
“Walking around here today, there’s not one person who said to me, ‘Why did you do LIV?’ ” he 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,” he added.
On his stroll around the grounds, Norman stopped to chat with Australian player Min Woo Lee, who plays on the PGA Tour.
There are 13 players from the LIV circuit playing in The Masters this week including defending champion Jon Rahm of Spain.
Last year, Augusta National Golf Club chairman Fred Ridley said that Norman had not been invited because he would have been a distraction during the tournament.
“We did not extend an invitation to Mr Norman. The primary issue and the driver there is that I want the focus this week to be on The Masters competition, on the great players that are participating, the greatest players in the world,” he said.
Ridley struck a more conciliatory tone during his address to the media on Wednesday and the mood has shifted within the sport since June’s ‘framework agreement’ between the PGA Tour and LIV.
Also spotted walking the course on Wednesday was John Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox baseball team and Premier League football club Liverpool.
Henry is principal owner of Fenway Sports Group and manager of the Strategic Sports Group which has entered into a major agreement with the PGA Tour.
In March, Henry was one of a number of investors from SSG who invested $1.5-billion to create PGA Tour Enterprises, a for-profit wing of the Tour which aims to develop new commercial opportunities.
© Agence France-Presse
