By Steve Keating
AUGUSTA, Georgia (Reuters) – Members of LIV Golf may be welcome at Augusta National but the rebel circuit’s polarising CEO Greg Norman did not get a Masters invite over concerns the Australian would be an unwanted distraction, club chairman Fred Ridley confirmed on Wednesday.
Tensions were high in the run-up to the year’s first major as golfers from the feuding PGA Tour and LIV Golf headed to Georgia with battle lines drawn.
Golfers from both sides and Augusta National have done their best to defuse the rancour but Norman has fanned the flames, accusing the club of pettiness and calling on LIV players to gather en masse at the 18th hole to celebrate on Sunday should one of their group claim the coveted Green Jacket.
“We did not extend an invitation to Mr. Norman,” said Ridley during his annual news conference ahead of the Masters opening round on Thursday.
“The primary issue and the driver there is that I want the focus this week to be on the Masters competition, on the great players that are participating, the greatest players in the world.
“I would also add that, in the last 10 years, Greg Norman has only been here twice, and I believe one of those was as a commentator for Sirius Radio.
“It really was to keep the focus on the competition.”
While LIV golfers are banned from the PGA Tour, the Masters, like the other majors, has opened the door to those who qualify.
Sprinkled among the Masters field are 18 members of the LIV Tour, many back at Augusta as former champions, which comes with a lifetime exemption.
Widely considered the best player never to win the Masters, Norman has been persona non grata at many of golf’s most prestigious events.
He was also not invited to attend last year’s 150th anniversary celebration for the British Open, an event he won twice.
Ultra-private Augusta National has had little to say about the bickering but Ridley made his feelings clear last December when confirming qualified LIV players would be allowed into the Masters field.
“Our statement in December, and particularly the comment that these actions had diminished the virtues of the game, I want to make a couple points,” said Ridley.
“What I was trying to point out, and I alluded to it in my comments, the platform that these players have built their careers on were based on the blood, sweat and tears of their predecessors, people like Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Tiger Woods.
“So my comment in December was really more that I was expressing some disappointment that these players were taking the platform that had been given to them — that they rightly had earned success on, by the way — and moving to another opportunity, perhaps not thinking about who might come behind them.”
“These were personal decisions of these players, which I, you know, at a high level, don’t necessarily agree with, but it really wasn’t intended to go beyond that.”
As a major winner, Norman would normally expect an invitation to Masters week but he might not be getting one for some time.
“I would never say never,” said Ridley about a Norman return. “I’ve noticed a tone… I’ve noticed the players are interacting.
“I’m hopeful, that this week might get people thinking in a little bit different direction and things will change.”
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Augusta. Editing by Toby Davis)
