'Leave your egos at the door' - Butch Harmon urges LIV Golf chief Greg Norman and Jay Monahan to find solution
/dnl.eurosport.com/sd/img/placeholder/eurosport_logo_1x1.png){kind=logo}
Published 01/09/2022 at 16:44 GMT
LIV Golf and the PGA Tour continue to trade blows, with LIV landing a huge punch this week with the announcement of Open Championship winner Cameron Smith as its latest recruit. It appears that it is likely to end up in court, as Greg Norman and Jay Monahan are not likely to shift stance. Butch Harmon has told them to put their egos away and talk to each other.
Varner III says 'it sucks to be hated' after ditching PGA Tour for LIV Golf
Butch Harmon has called on Greg Norman and Jay Monahan to leave their egos at the door, get together and thrash out a settlement for the good of golf.
LIV Golf CEO Norman and PGA Tour commissioner Monahan are at loggerheads, following the emergence of the former tour.
Norman’s LIV Golf is funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and it has thrown huge contracts at star names from the world of golf - with Open champion Cameron Smith the latest to make the move.
All players who have defected from the PGA Tour and not resigned their memberships have been suspended by Monahan.
A court case has been scheduled for January 2024, but the punches and counter-punches are set to continue.
Legendary coach Harmon feels LIV is not going to disappear and has called on Monahan and Norman to find a solution.
“Greg had this idea 27 years ago,” Harmon said on his son Claude’s Son of a Butch podcast.. “He approached it, had a TV contract, a bunch of big stars signed up and all of a sudden the Tour got ahead of it and it went away.
“He has always had this idea in his head that he would like to get this done. Now this opportunity came along, the Saudis came along with the idea and Greg is involved big-time.
“At this point in time, and I know both - commissioner Monahan and Greg Norman - and they need to put their egos aside and look at what is best for the game.
“This is not going away, Liv is here to stay, so let’s find a way to make it work.”
/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2022/09/01/3443652-70258213-2560-1440.jpg)
LIV is 'the future of golf' claims Cameron Smith after moving over from PGA Tour
Harmon feels common ground can be found, if the two sides have the will to make a deal.
“I think we just have to see what is going to happen,” Harmon said. “The governing bodies, the European Tour and PGA Tour, I think there is a way to co-exist.”
Harmon has suggested a handful of mega events bringing the best players from all tours together, but fears the animosity between Norman and Monahan is too big an obstacle to overcome.
“First of all I would say leave your egos at the door,” Harmon said. “Come in with an open mind and see what we can do to make it better.
“The second thing, I would think there is a way for the European Tour, the PGA Tour, the LIV tour to get together and have four or five huge tournaments a year where participants from all three tours get to play. You can make it a 100-man field, you can do it off world rankings, you can do it however you want to do it.
“Do it for a huge amount of money, as that is what it is all about, and go to iconic, fabulous golf courses around the world and have this true world event.
“Is that going to happen? Probably not, because Jay Monahan would not even go to the meeting at the moment.
“I would love to see some kind of thing get together as some gigantic world event. Not the majors, the majors will always be the majors and are the ultimate in golf.
"There has got to be a way to co-exist. I think these two organisations have to get together and do the best thing for golf.”
Scan me
Related Topics
Share this article
Advertisement
Advertisement