Former PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman believes LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman made a number of errors during his time in charge of the Saudi-backed league.

Norman has been the man in charge of the LIV setup ever since its inception in June 2022. Since then, the former world No. 1 has helped the breakaway league climb up the professional golfing ladder, seeing it compete alongside the PGA Tour at the top.

In that time, Norman has been able to lure in some of golf’s biggest names including Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, and more recently Jon Rahm.

Despite this, Norman has faced his critics, and the latest is Beman. The former PGA Tour boss believes the Aussie has been unable to live up to the expectations his Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) bosses expected. “From the outside, it would appear to me that Greg sold them a bill of goods,” he told Sports Illustrated.

“Sold them on the fact that if he got a certain number of prominent players, that he wouldn’t be investing billions a year with no sign that they can even break even. I think he sold them on the face that the players who went there could defeat the Tour in the regulation of conflicting events. I think he got that wrong.

“And I think he got it wrong that the superstars in his mind would control everything. The realities are that someone like Jack [Nicklaus] in his heyday was the best player in the world and played as few tournaments as he could and the Tour was still successful without him. It’s the same with Tiger [Woods].

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Yasir Al-Rumayyan the Chairman of the PIF Fund of The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with Greg Norman of Australia

Greg Norman is in charge at LIV Golf ( 

Image:

Getty Images)

“It’s the organization and the volunteers and the events themselves and the ability to attract corporate sponsors who put up the money to make it all work. And they get great value for that. It’s not Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods even though we love to have them.”

Beman’s comments come with Norman’s future up in the air. Last week it was reported by Sports Business Journal that Saudi chiefs were looking to replace Norman as the league’s CEO, moving the former PGA Tour competitor into a different role within the setup.

The hunt for a new CEO comes with PIF in negotiations with the PGA Tour over a peace deal between the two circuits. Previously, both Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have claimed that Norman needed to step away from his role in order for peace to exist between the PGA Tour and LIV. “I think Greg needs to go. I think he just needs to exit stage left,” McIlroy has previously claimed.

“He’s made his mark but I think now is the right time to say you’ve got this thing off the ground but no one’s going to talk unless there’s an adult in the room that can actually try to mend fences.” This was echoed by Woods, who added: “I think Greg has to go, first of all… Then we can talk, we can all talk freely.”