Woods calmly condemns Norman, upstart LIV Tour
Tiger Woods has arrived at the crazy-historic 150th British Open and has brought along his voice, all earned and found and seasoned. He sounded statesmanlike on Tuesday morning as he spoke without reluctance about the blaring, glaring issue disrupting his sport: the breakaway, Saudi-funded LIV Tour. He even recoiled at the idea of loud music.
He started early at his news conference, fielding a question about the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews’ decision to disinvite Greg Norman because of the distracting noise Norman’s presence might cause given his chairmanship of the LIV Tour.
“The R&A obviously have their opinions and their rulings and their decision,” Woods said. “Greg has done some things that I don’t think are in the best interest of our game, and we’re coming back to probably the most historic and traditional place in our sport. I believe it’s the right thing.”
He specified a few answers later: “I know what the PGA Tour stands for and what we have done and what the tour has given us, the ability to chase after our careers and to earn what we get and the trophies we have been able to play for and the history that has been a part of this game. I know Greg tried to do this [a rival tour] back in the early ’90s. It didn’t work then, and he’s trying to make it work now.”
And he did not flinch in his calm answer to a question about the cluster of players who have defected already, and who include major winners Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed and Louis Oosthuizen.
“I disagree with it,“Woods said. “I think what they’ve done is they’ve turned their backs on what has allowed them to get to this position. Some players have never got a chance to even experience it.
“Some of these players may not ever get a chance to play in major championships. … It’s up to all the major championship bodies to make that determination. But that is a possibility, that some players will never, ever get a chance to play in a major championship, never get a chance to experience this right here, [or] walk down the fairways at Augusta National. That, to me, I just don’t understand it.
“I understand what Jack [Nicklaus] and Arnold [Palmer] did [when they started the PGA Tour in the late 1960s] because playing professional golf at a tour level versus a club pro [level] is different, and I understand that transition and that move and the recognition that a touring pro versus a club pro is.
“But what these players are doing for guaranteed money, what is the incentive to practice? What is the incentive to go out there and earn it in the dirt? You’re just getting paid a lot of money up front and playing a few events and playing 54 holes.”
He spoke at fond length about the most hallowed of those grounds, St. Andrews, as it celebrates the 150th anniversary.
“It is my favorite,” Woods said of the course.