GOLF

Scott O’Neil replacing Greg Norman as LIV Commissioner

1 year ago - Sportingbase

According to Patrick McDonald of CBS Sports on Wednesday, the LIV Golf Tour is replacing Greg Norman with Scott O’Neil. The announcement should not be a huge surprise because it had been rumoured for a while that Norman’s time as the head of LIV was coming to an end.

Norman had been the LIV Commissioner since October 2021. Arguably the best Australian golfer of all-time, he is a winner of 20 PGA tournaments and two majors (the 1986 and 1993 British Open). Norman needs to be praised for leading a very controversial organization and keeping the company going, because many in the sports world are surprised the league has lasted three years. The fact that the PGA Tour has changed its stance from not wanting anything to do with the LIV Tour to willing to cooperate with them, is partially due to Norman’s business expertise.

O’Neil has a wealth of sports business experience. It includes being the senior vice-president of team marketing and business operations for the National Basketball Association from 2000 to 2008, the president of Madison Square Garden Sports (host venue of the New York Knicks) from 2008 to 2012, the chief executive officer of the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA and the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League from 2013 to 2021, and the co-founder of Elevate Sports Ventures since 2018.

The 2025 LIV golf season will begin in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. There is one stop in Australia. That will be in Adelaide in February. In all there are 11 tournaments scheduled in eight different countries. There are four events scheduled for the United States.