Former super agent Hughes Norton has disclosed some interesting information about Greg Norman, including the source of his LIV Golf League concept.
The CEO of LIV Golf, Hughes Norton, is a “classic narcissist” with a “consuming need to be visible and relevant,” according to Greg Norman’s former agent.
The new book by Norton, Rainmaker, delves into the character analysis of Norman and charts his career as a former agent to the stars, including the highs and lows of working with both Norman and Tiger Woods.
After 11 years of collaboration, Norton expressed his disappointment when the two eventually parted ways in 1993.
Norton disclosed in a Daily Mail interview that Norman felt betrayed by his decision to follow his own path.
He said:
Superstars have a tendency to go off on their own after a while, so I was able to understand his desire to move on after 11 years together a little better than Tiger. Regardless of the management agency they work with, they just do. They believe that since everything has been going well up until now, nothing is wrong. No ill will. I truly want to handle it on my own. That, then, is the situation with Greg.
He has a right to that, without a doubt. Was I broken and disappointed when he went? Yes, considering how close we were as friends and how unexpected it was. However, the Tiger scenario was significantly more challenging and unsettling.
When he signed both Woods and Norman, Norton, who worked for the international sports agency IMG, disclosed that Norman took the LIV Golf league’s blueprint with him when he left.
The former super agent disclosed that Mark McCormack, the founder of IMG and a former agent of Arnold Palmer, was the one who came up with the concept for LIV, not Norman.
He added:
“Mark McCormack was a true visionary who was light years ahead of his peers in terms of vision and timing. And that’s a prime illustration. It’s actually one of the book’s most important discoveries. Although Greg has credited his brilliant idea for a world tour, LIV was actually conceived 30 years before Greg ever presented it, by this extraordinarily intelligent Arnold Palmer manager at the time.
“In early 1994, Greg left IMG and fired me. It didn’t take him long to announce his plan for a world tour in the autumn of that year.”
After 30 years and despite Norman’s initial attempt to launch a global tour in 1994 failing miserably, he has now accomplished his long-term objective with support from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
LIV, which debuted in 2022 and has since grown to become much more than the PGA Tour’s noisy neighbor, has achieved this by rewarding some of the world’s top players with absurd sums of money.
Jon Rahm most recently joined the breakaway league for an alleged $600 million. The Spaniard is currently the captain of his own squad, Legion XIII, which also includes Tyrrell Hatton, a former member of the PGA Tour.
Although Norton has maintained that he is observing the LIV vs. PGA Tour battle from a distance, he is fully aware of the actions he would have taken on behalf of his players had he remained an agent.
He said:
“You can argue about upholding the PGA’s traditions or about being loyal to the organization, but what happens when someone offers you multigenerational wealth? The response would be: A) How am I going to refuse that? You can’t, is the answer. B) Where do I put my signature? I was unable to refuse in good conscience.”
Leave a Reply