McIlroy: Greg Needs To Exit Stage Left

The rumours are mounting that Greg Norman will no longer be in his position as the CEO of LIV Golf come the new season. There has been talk that the former TaylorMade chief, Mark King, has met the governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund that bankrolls the breakaway circuit and King attended several LIV Golf events this year.

The 60-year-old is currently the CEO of Taco Bell, having overseen some huge growth at TaylorMade and Adidas. And the pressure has been ramped up again on Norman as Rory McIlroy continued their war of words in Dubai.

The pair have continued to poke one another throughout this season and McIlroy wasn't holding back this week when asked about how some sort of resolution might come about between the main tours.

"I think there's a few things that need to happen," he said. "So there's obviously two lawsuits going on at the minute - there's PGA Tour versus LIV and there's this one that's coming up with the DP World Tour in February. Nothing will happen if those two things are still going on.

"Then I think from whatever happens with those two things, there's a few things that I would like to see on the LIV side that needs to happen. I think Greg needs to go, 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 is going to talk unless there’s an adult in the room that can actually try to mend fences.

"If those two things happen, then things can happen. But right now, it's a stalemate because there can't be any other way. Hopefully something can happen, who knows."

There will be that legal hearing in February on whether LIV players will be banned from the DP World Tour and subsequently the Ryder Cup. McIlroy has admitted that it has all led to personal friendships being damaged but that things could still be worked out.

"It’s obviously been a very contentious year in golf. The best thing in golf is to have all the best players playing together, and [with] what’s happening right now that’s not happening. So I fear for the game when that’s going on. It’s contentious because there’s lawsuits going on and people suing people; it’s very, very messy. If all that stuff can be sorted out one way or the other, then you can get to the stage where there’s forgiveness and people can have dialogue and come to some sort of common ground or compromise."

McIlroy also added that hopefully we've seen the worst of it.

“I don’t think [golf] will have another year like this one because all of the noise has been about who is jumping ship, who is going where, who is staying, who is going. Very little of the storyline has actually been about the golf. So I think next year, if we can get the storylines to being about the golf and what’s happening on the course, that’s a good thing.”