SHARK BITE: Greg Norman Slams McIlroy Over PGL Comments

Ever since the news broke that a new professional golf league might be in the works, everyone seems to have come forward with an opinion on the matter. Rory McIlroy has come out as a strong critic thus far but there’s at least one golf legend that didn’t take kindly to his criticisms.

The proposed PGL was a hot topic for the media this past week at the WGC-Mexico and McIlroy’s comments have been well-chronicled. The current world #1 stated that he was definitely not in favor of the league because it wouldn’t allow the players any freedom as the current golf leagues do. One comment that really seemed to strike a chord though was when he said he would rather be on the right side of history like Arnold Palmer was in the 1990s.

The guy on the wrong side of history that Rory mentioned was Greg “The Shark” Norman. For those who don’t know or remember, Norman also tried to push for a similar “world golf tour” in 1994 but was met by much criticism, mostly from legend Arnold Palmer. Ultimately the World Golf Tour never materialized and McIlroy was making an analogy that the same would happen to the PGL.

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Norman did not take nicely to that comment, however, and came out guns blazing against Rory. “I like Rory, no question about it,” Norman said. “But I think what he said was probably coming less from him than it was coming from people around him.“This one cuts deep. It’s a subject that has left a lot of scar tissue for me.”

To expound on that point, Norman believes that corporate interests, such as NBC and The Golf Channel, prepped McIlroy with statements to shoot down the PGL because they have so much money invested in the PGA TOUR. Norman said he believed the same thing happened when Palmer came out against the World Golf Tour. He was simply influenced by those around him, not expressing his true opinion. For their part, McIlroy and both networks have strongly denied Norman’s claims.

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Regardless of if this situation is quickly turning into a media battle, we still have a long way to go until we’ll know if the PGL is a realistic option. Until then, everything surrounding the new upstart will only be talk and speculation.

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