Greg Norman mentioned Monday that he has handed off his recruitment efforts.
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The phrases coming from Greg Norman on Monday had been no completely different than those he’s spoken for the higher a part of the final six months. The distinction with these phrases, nonetheless, was their supposed viewers.
As per typical, Norman stepped in entrance of media in Australia — as a part of a press convention asserting the league’s future occasion in Adelaide — with a mixture of bluster and enthusiasm.
Do you count on to have high 10, 20 and 50 gamers be a part of you subsequent 12 months?
“Yes,” Norman responded with a smile.
Are they high 10, high 20 or high 50?
“Yes,” he repeated. “That might be the shortest answer I’ve given in my 45 years of doing media.”
This, as those that have adopted Norman (and LIV) carefully over in current months, was commonplace. Norman has been LIV’s Chief Executive Teaser for the reason that league’s inception, feeding the rumor mill a gentle eating regimen of breathless hypothesis and conjecture. It is to his profit to take action — partially as a result of nobody can show what he’s saying is unfaithful, and partially as a result of a couple of well-timed rumors can supply LIV a uncommon little bit of leverage.
In Monday’s presser, nonetheless, Norman’s viewers appeared to shift earlier than our eyes. When requested concerning the league’s efforts to draw extra top-end expertise, Norman didn’t amplify consideration however deflected it, for the primary time, towards his gamers.
“Look, I think that’s more of a Cam Smith decision, right?” Norman mentioned when requested about LIV goal Adam Scott. “Cam has got to build out his franchise. Cam is responsible for his franchise along with Marc Leishman. They’ve got to look at what’s best for them going forward.”
Pressed once more, Norman bent however didn’t break.
“I’m not getting into the players who we’re targeting or not targeting,” he mentioned. “We just had a conversation about Adam Scott before. Basically as we look into the future, it’s the franchises. They’re responsible to build out their franchises right now. So each and every one look at different players from a different perspective.”
For LIV, the choice to put the burden of LIV’s recruiting efforts on its gamers is a cautious little bit of calculus. For one factor, it emphasizes the significance of the league’s franchise construction, wherein top-shelf gamers possess possession stakes and are accountable for team-specific bills. For one other, it shifts the eye away from the controversial supply of LIV’s cash — the Saudi Public Investment Fund with which LIV has develop into synonymous — and towards the figurehead gamers that the league hopes will usher in a new period {of professional} golf.
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But that’s to not say Norman is about to cease promoting totally. Even as he tried to delegate extra accountability on his constituents, he discovered himself fanning the flames across the league’s potential additions.
“I will say this: We will end up signing more players for sure,” he mentioned. “There’s a lot of interest because of the success of what happened this year. There have been a few players sitting on the sidelines, and now that they’ve seen the success and seen what the play of DJ and the success of the 4Aces, it’s a very, very compelling opportunity.”
Norman is aware of that probably the greatest possibilities for LIV to catch on is thru the staff format. That goes for gamers as a lot because it does for followers.
“The other thing you’ve got to remember, too, these players still speak to each other,” Norman mentioned. “They don’t hate each other like has been said in some of the narrative in the media. These guys are still locker room mates. They still play golf together. They still go back home and some live in the same city and go to the same golf course. They speak to each other. If it’s not the players, it’s the caddies speak to each other. If it’s not the caddies, the wives speak to each other.”
As with something LIV, a bigger query looms: Is any of this … true? It’s onerous to say. On one hand, it’s probably LIV’s mega-paydays are at the least fascinating to somebody of be aware on this planet of professional golf. On the opposite, Norman’s final response concerning the league’s recruitment efforts would possibly effectively qualify as Freudian.
“The people who have been the bystanders trying to sit on the sideline and watch,” he mentioned, “they’re the ones who probably — not probably — they’re the ones who are knocking on our doors now.”
