Greg Norman passed the baton on to Tiger Woods before the turn of the century.
Woods surpassed Norman as the world number one in June 1997, after the Australian had spent 312 weeks as the best golfer on the planet.
The 70-year-old would go on to record 331 weeks at the top of the rankings – a record that was eventually beaten by Woods, who went on to rack up 683 weeks at the top of the pile.
Woods went on to win 82 PGA Tour events, including 15 majors. Meanwhile, Norman ended his career with 20 PGA Tour titles and two major championships.
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Interestingly, Woods proved Norman wrong with his 2019 Masters win, four years after the Australian predicted that the American would never win another major.
And after Woods’ success at Augusta National six years ago, Norman opened up and shared something about the 15-time major champion that ‘very few people know’.
Why Greg Norman believes Tiger Woods dislikes him
Just like many golfers out on the PGA Tour in this day and age, Woods has never seen eye-to-eye with Norman.
The Australian is uncompromising with his opinions and perhaps it’s a sad indictment of the society we live in that many people simply don’t like him for sharing said opinions, because they don’t agree with them.
But what was the root cause for the lack of a bond between Norman and Woods?
Norman was asked that exact question by Men’s Health back in 2019 just after Woods won The Masters for the fifth time.
“Yeah, look, I’m happy to clear that up for you,“ Norman said.
“Like, when you ask me a question, I’m going to give you an honest answer. I’m not going to b——t to you.
“I’m also going to draw on my experience of the past in terms of what Jack Nicklaus did for me, what Arnold Palmer did for me, where there was that respect handed off from the generation before you. It’s a code of conduct in a lot of ways.
“Very few people know this: when Tiger won the Masters this year, I wrote him a handwritten note and drove down my road, maybe a quarter of a mile, and hand-delivered it to his guard at his gate. I said, ‘Hey, this is Greg Norman here. I’ve got a note for Tiger – can you please hand-deliver it to him?‘
“Well, I never heard a word back from the guy. When I won my first major championship, Jack Nicklaus was the first person to walk down out of the TV tower and congratulate me. I don’t know – maybe Tiger just dislikes me. I have no idea. I’ve never had a conversation with him about it.
“I’ve always been respectful about what his father did for him. I played nine holes with him at his father’s and IMG’s request when Tiger was 14 or 15 and I was the No. 1 player in the world, to give an assessment of this kid. So, I have always been willing.“
It would be interesting to hear Woods’ response to those remarks from Norman but as things stand, he has never opened up about the incident.
Tiger Woods ripped into Greg Norman for his role with LIV Golf
In the winter of 2022, Woods made it very clear why he believed Norman should move on from his role with LIV.
“Greg has to go,” Woods said.
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“For him to try and trivialise what the greats before him did to grow and create what the PGA Tour is today is an absolute disgrace. You should hang your head in shame, Shark.”
Wayne Grady
“Let me just sum this up with a couple of words. First of all, Greg Norman is an icon in the game of golf. He’s a great player. We’ve been friends for a long time, and regardless of what happens, he’s going to remain a friend. Unfortunately, he and I just don’t see eye to eye in what’s going on [with LIV]. I’ll basically leave it at that.”
Jack Nicklaus
“Greg needs to go; he needs to exit stage left. He’s made his mark but I think now is the right time to say you’ve got this thing off the ground but no one’s going to talk unless there’s an adult in the room that can actually try to mend fences.”
Rory McIlroy
“And then obviously litigation against us and then our countersuit against them, those would then have to be at a stay as well.
“So then we can talk, we can all talk freely.“
However, a bullish Norman responded in typical fashion.
“Well, I think, yeah, sad for Tiger,” Norman said.
“You know, unfortunately he made a comment that he doesn’t know the facts about, because obviously I’m still here. Obviously he doesn’t control what we do with LIV.
“So just making those comments I think is an indication that he might be a bit of a mouthpiece for the PGA Tour to try and get us to create, or get turmoil created internally within LIV. But it’s not happening. We are fully entrenched. We know where we are going. We know what we’re doing.”
Of course, Norman did end up leaving his role as LIV Golf’s CEO earlier this year, with Scott O’Neil coming in to replace him.
Quite what the future holds for Norman remains to be seen, but it’s fair to assume that he won’t be sending Woods a birthday card for his 50th this year!
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