Get set for Greg Norman to stage his LIV Golf 'publicity stunt' at Royal Troon

There’s more than meets eye about Australian’s appearance at Augusta National

Will Greg Norman be back this year at Royal Troon, where he lit up the final day of the 1989 Open with a course-record 64 before being denied a second Claret Jug success in the space of four years in a play-off won by Mark Calcavecchia? Based on the 88th Masters, the answer is probably ‘yes’.

In his role as LIV Golf’s CEO and commissioner, the Australian has been at Augusta National, where, according to his son Greg jnr, Norman “paid for a ticket on the secondary market” to support the 13 players flying the flag for the set-up circuit in the season’s opening major.

That wouldn’t have been necessary, of course, if the former world No 1 hadn’t suffered a final-round collapse here to allow Nick Faldo to slip on his third Green Jacket in 1996 because a different outcome on that occasion would have guaranteed ongoing attendance for Norman at the Champions Dinner. It is also puzzling why he did that when those LIV players were each granted eight tickets for this week yet either wasn’t offered one or decided that didn’t fit his storyline here.

Greg Norman of Australia, CEO and Commissioner of LIV Golf, walks with patrons during the 88th Masters at Augusta National Golf Club. Picture: Warren Little/Getty Images.

According to him, he’s here as a patron instead in a straightforward capacity. “I’m here because we have 13 players that won ten Masters between them,” Norman told the Washington Post out on the course at the Georgia venue earlier in the week. “So I’m here just to support them, do the best I can to show them, ‘hey, you know, the boss is here rooting for you’.”

Forgive me for being cynical, but there’s more to his appearance that meets the eye. At a time when talks are ongoing about a framework agreement struck between the main traditional circuits - the PGA Tour and DP World Tour – and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, LIV Golf and Norman, in particular, are using this week’s event as a publicity stunt.

Make no mistake, LIV is not going away, especially after Jon Rahm was handed a staggering sum of money to decide a golfing legacy wasn’t his main priority in life after all to become the circuit’s latest star signing for the new season and being joined in making that switch by his Ryder Cup team-mate Tyrrell Hatton, as well as 2023 DP World Tour Player of the Year Adrian Meronk.

Though not necessarily known by the public, various off-course commercial announcements, including clothing deals, have been secured over the past few months and Norman walking the fairways definitely smacks of him trying to put LIV in the spotlight on one of the biggest stages in sport.

By the looks of things, Norman is loving the fact he’s being viewed as a sort of man of the people at Augusta National, where he was out here again on Friday, having been out following defending champion Rahm’s group the previous day.

“Walking around here today, there’s not one person who said to me, ‘why did you do LIV?’ ” he said in that Washington Post chat on Wednesday. “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.”

Norman wasn’t invited by The R&A to be part of the celebrations for the 150th Open at St Andrews in 2022, but watch out for his trademark straw cowboy-style hat on the Ayrshire coast in July.