PGA Tour Asked for Greg Norman to be Removed As LIV Golf Commissioner
Is Greg Norman on his way out at LIV?
Not now, but the future is very murky for the two-time major winner. If (and it's a big if) a definitive agreement is eventually executed between the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, Norman would be shown the door.
That is what Ron Price, Chief Operating Officer of the PGA Tour confirmed to Senator Richard Blumenthal in questioning during a hearing of the Permanent Subcommittee of Investigations under the Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee at the Hart Senate Office Building on Tuesday.
According to Price, under the framework agreement between the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia that was announced on June 6th, the NewCo, which will be the newly created for-profit corporation that has the combined assets of the DP World Tour, PGA Tour, LIV and a large investment from the PIF, would allow for the PGA Tour, which would control the new entity, the ability to push Norman out.
“Under the framework agreement, if we are able to move to a definitive agreement and its approved, the LIV Golf assets, for which Greg Norman is currently the commissioner will move into a new PGA Tour subsidiary, controlled by the PGA Tour and those events will be managed by the PGA Tour,” Price said in his testimony. “We have a complete infrastructure in place to manage events. It would make no sense to bring in that type of an executive to manage what is now a 14-series of events.”
The desire to have the PIF and Yasir Al-Rumayyan agree to the ouster of Norman and the consulting firm Performance 54 is outlined in an e-mail of May 24th, from Ed Herlihy, the Chairman of the PGA Tour Policy Board to Michael Klein, a banker and adviser to PIF.
“Attached is a one sentence side letter that we would propose be executed between all the parties at the same time as the Framework Agreement. The operative sentence is below,”
“In connection with the execution of the Framework Agreement, the Parties hereby agree that the services provided by Greg Norman and Performance 54 to LIV will cease upon the management transition to the PGA Tour contemplated by the Framework Agreement and is any event by no later than one month thereafter.”
At the end of the e-mail, Herlihy notes that the side letter was what was discussed with Mohannad S. Alblehed, who along with Brian Gillespie and Al-Rumayyan, was part of the PIF negotiating team that was in the initial discussions on May 11-12 in Venice, Italy and May 28-30 in San Francisco.
Price testified that the side letter was never executed, and discussion of terminating Performance 54 was not discussed in the hearing, but Price did testify that no other agreements, side letters or informal understandings exist outside of the framework agreement.
In an e-mail titled Talking Points and dated June 4, two-days from the announcement of the framework agreement, that was executed on May 30, Price included the following point to Monahan:
“Greg Norman will be reassigned to an advisory role determined by PIF when the PGA Tour becomes the manager of the LIV Tour.”
In an e-mail from Herlihy to Jimmy Dunne, a PGA Tour Policy Board Member, dated May 15, there was a back and forth that indicated that Monahan liked the idea of both Dunne and Herlihy overseeing LIV.