There’s been a Great White Shark sighting at Augusta National.
Greg Norman, a former Masters runner-up and the CEO of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf, was spotted on the grounds at Augusta for the first time since 2021 on Wednesday — one year after a highly publicized invite snub.
“I’m here because we have 13 players that won 10 Masters between them,” Norman told The Washington Post. “So I’m here just to support them, do the best I can to show them, ‘Hey, you know, the boss is here rooting for you.'”
The 69-year-old Norman arrived at Augusta “with a pair of LIV executives through the main gate,” The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
The move came 12 months after Masters chairman Fred Ridley did not extend an invitation to the two-time major champion as golf’s civil war between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf waged on.
“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, which, by our decision in December, we ensured that we were going to honor and be consistent with our invitation criteria,” Ridley said in April 2023.
“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.”
Norman last attended the Masters in 2021 when he served as an analyst at SiriusXM.
His son, Greg Norman Jr., later provided insight on Wednesday’s surprise sighting.
“My dad paid for a ticket on the secondary market to attend the Masters as a patron. He was denied one directly after going through the proper professional channels. He had to be there anyway to support the LIV players,” Greg Norman Jr. posted Thursday on X alongside a screenshot of articles detailing his father’s appearance at the 2024 Masters.
“It was an amazing experience; hundreds of golf fans approached him walking outside the ropes. All positive support of him and LIV. Not one person said anything negative to him.”
Norman echoed a similar sentiment to The Washington Post.
“Walking around here today, there’s not one person who said to me, ‘Why did you do LIV?’” Norman said.
“There’s been hundreds of people, even security guys, stopping me, saying, ‘Hey, what you’re doing is fantastic.’ To me, that tells you that what we have and the platform fits within the ecosystem, and it’s good for the game of golf.”
Newly acquired LIV Golf star Jon Rahm is the defending Masters champion while fellow members of the rebel circuit, Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson, tied for second at last year’s event.
Koepka, 33, became the first member of LIV Golf to win a major at the PGA Championship in May 2023.
This Masters is different than last year’s, however, as the PGA Tour and LIV Golf have since announced plans of a merger.
The opening round of the Masters got underway later Thursday morning following a two-plus hour weather delay.