LIV Golf's C-Suite Continues to Transform in Advance of Second Season

The departure of the managing director gives Greg Norman more power but doesn't necessarily mean the Saudi Public Investment Fund doesn't run the league.

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Greg Norman was given more power last week when LIV Golf announced that Majed Al Sourer was leaving his role as managing director. And the change is not insignificant.

While Norman's role—despite cries from those outside the organization to be removed—has been strengthened, he will no longer report directly to Al Sourer, whose duties were widespread, including being heavily involved in the recruitment of players.

Al Sourer, who will remain on LIV Golf's seven-person board, is the CEO of Golf Saudi, the organization whose task was to make Saudi "a global destination for golf," a tough task given the lack of tourism to the country. Golf Saudi also runs this week’s Saudi International.

He is also director of the Premier League's Newcastle United soccer team and an advisor to Saudi's Public Investment Fund, the money source behind LIV Golf.

LIV Golf more or less suggested that Al Sourer's job was done as it related to the league. A TV deal is in place, most of the players are signed, a second-year schedule is announced. And he can settle back into other roles while still advising LIV.

His departure from that role means that Norman now reports directly to Yassir Al-Rumayyan, who is the governor of the PIF and also the top person at Newcastle United.

While this streamlines the structure, it does not necessarily discount the notion put forth by the PGA Tour that the controversial league is actually run by the PIF and that it is heavily involved in day-to-day operations. Perhaps moving Sorour aside was, in part, meant to push back on that narrative.

Whatever the case, LIV has undergone some significant changes since playing its last event in October. In addition to the Al Sorour move, COO Atul Khosla left the company in December, and the director of franchises, Matt Goodman, also left. A high-ranking communications specialist, Jonathan Grella, left last week.

They were not replaced, although LIV Golf said the duties of Khosla and Goodman have been taken over by personnel at Performance 54, a London-based agency that has been part of the LIV Golf movement prior its formal existence.