19th Hole
Rory McIlroy reveals how Greg Norman recently soured relationship after olive branch had emerged
Rory McIlroy has arguably become the face of the PGA Tour. Despite Tiger Woods and McIlroy calling for Greg Norman to step down from his position as CEO of LIV Golf, “the Shark” is still very much the face of the rival golf league. With their respective positions, it hasn’t been all that surprising that the relationship between the two big names in the world of golf has grown exceedingly contentious.
However, what may be a bit surprising to some is that up until recently, the relationship between the two was very strong.
In McIlroy’s recent interview with the “Sunday Independent“, the 33-year-old revealed some conversations he’d had in the recent past that give a better understanding of his complex relationship with Norman.
Rory was one of the first players to say he wasn’t interested in joining a rival golf league with huge, guaranteed contracts being the motivating factor.
“He (Norman) wasn’t happy, and we had a pretty testy back-and-forth and he was very condescending. ‘Maybe one day you’ll understand’ and all this (stuff),”
However, McIlroy remembered some kindness showed from Norman after Rory collapsed at the 2011 Masters. After the tournament, Norman reached out to McIlroy with some words of comfort. “He was great,” McIlroy said.
With that in mind, McIlroy reached out to Norman after watching the 30 for 30 documentary about Norman’s 1996 Masters collapse that was released in April of 2022.
“So, I said to him, ‘Watching it reminded me of how you reached out to me in 2011, and I just want to say that I’ll always appreciate it. It meant a lot. I know our opinion on the game of golf right now is very different, but I just wanted you to know that and wish you all the best.”
“So, a bit of an olive branch, and he came back to me straightaway: ‘I really think golf can be a force for good around the world… I know our opinions are not aligned but I’m just trying to create more opportunities for every golfer around the world.”
At that point, although they disagreed on whether LIV was a good or bad thing for golf, they seemed to have reached a level of mutual respect and gone their separate ways. Until, according to McIlroy, Norman re-opened the floodgates by saying just a few weeks later that Rory had been “brainwashed” by the PGA Tour.
“A couple of weeks later, he (Norman) does an interview with The Washington Post and says I’ve been brainwashed by the PGA Tour. We’ve had this really nice back-and-forth and he says that about me.”
After the interview, McIlroy’s thought process changed: “I thought, you know what? I’m going to make it my business now to be as much of a pain in his a**e as possible,” with the four-time major winner claiming that the PGA Tour is lucky Norman is involved in LIV because, as he said, “if they had found someone less polarizing, LIV could have made more inroads.”
At this point, it seems as if the relationship between two of the biggest stars of each of their eras is beyond repair. The two have gone back and forth with comments on multiple occasions in the past few months and there doesn’t appear to be any desire on either side for a mending of the fences anytime soon.
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19th Hole
John Daly stuns fans into silence with brutal opening tee shot on PGA Tour Champions
When beginning his first round at the Hoag Classic on the PGA Tour Champions, John Daly got off to a shockingly bad start.
The two-time major winner took the crowd by surprise when he topped the ball off the tee.
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As Daly walks off the tee box disappointed, one fan can be heard saying “I can do that”.
He ended up making a double-bogey on the hole, but ended his round on a positive note, making birdie on four of his last seven holes and ended the day three over par.
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19th Hole
PGA Tour pro left fuming after being heckled during Valspar Championship
Over the weekend at the Valspar Championship, Hayden Buckley was getting ready to hit a shot on the par 4 12th hole at Copperhead when a rowdy fan yelled in his backswing.
Straight to jail. pic.twitter.com/3QRYngym4W
— Fore Play (@ForePlayPod) March 23, 2024
Despite having to step off, Buckey was able to get up-and-down for par to remain at -3, which at the time on Saturday was seven shots behind the leader, Keith Mitchell.
On X, comments replying to the video seemed to think Buckley had time to reset following the shout, while others inferred gambling had something to do with the incident.
Hadn’t even taken the club back yet. He could’ve easily stopped and reset. He hit a bad shot because he came up and out of it just to react to that guy.
— Jacob Henson (@jhenson25) March 23, 2024
Surprised it doesn’t happen more often with live betting lol
— The Hymanator (@01L3R5) March 23, 2024
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19th Hole
Charlie Woods finds it tough going on American Junior Golf Association debut
Over the weekend, Charlie Woods made his American Junior Golf Association debut. Woods played in the Will Lowery Junior Championship and finished in a tie for 32nd place of 51 players, shooting +21.
Woods shot 78-81-78 in the three rounds.
The winner of the event, Patmon Malcom, finished the event at -7.
Charlie’s dad, Tiger, was spotted alongside Charlie at the tournament in between meetings with the Saudi PIF’s Yasir Al-Rumayyan.
??? #SIGHTING — Tiger is in North Carolina as Charlie prepares for his AJGA debut on a sponsor’s exemption pic.twitter.com/R0Lk2GdXmm
— TWLEGION (@TWlegion) March 21, 2024
Expectations are sky high for Charlie, making it easy to lose sight of the fact that it was still his first start on the AJGA and he will continue to work towards improving his game.
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