'We've all made mistakes' – Norman continues to put his foot in it

The more some people talk, the more some people are going to put their foot in it. Some people, like Rory McIlroy or Jordan Spieth for example, become even more interesting the more they open up, others, like Greg Norman, dig themselves deeper into a hole.

This week the Aussie was in the UK for a media day ahead of next month's inaugural LIV Golf Invitational Series at the Centurion Club. The PGA and DP World Tours have both declined release requests from its players to feature in the event so nobody really has any idea who will be playing and, if they do, how the two tours will deal with that.

The UK media naturally asked about the idea of 'sportswashing' with the Saudi backing of the new series and the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. How you do begin to answer those types of questions is beyond most people but Norman's blunt summing up of things captured all the headlines around the world.

"Everybody has owned up to it, right? It has been spoken about, from what I've read, going on what you guys reported. Take ownership, no matter what it is," Norman said. "Look, we've all made mistakes and you just want to learn from those mistakes and how you can correct them going forward."

And there you have it – 'we've all made mistakes'. Norman made a few on the course, lots of them on the back nines in the majors and he moved on so why can't we all get past this? You might think that he would have been briefed to have a few key phrases to get across his disgust but no.

When asked about the 81 Saudi citizens being executed in a single day as recently as March he was equally as flippant.

“I got a lot of messages, but quite honestly I look forward, I don’t look back," he added. "I don’t look into the politics of things. I know the mission I have as CEO of LIV Golf and that’s how we can grow the game globally. I’m not going to get into the quagmire of whatever happens in someone else’s world. I heard about it and I just kept moving on.

"This whole thing about Saudi Arabia and Khashoggi and human rights, talk about it, but also talk about the good the country is doing to change its culture. There are not many countries that can stand up and be proud of that. They can't be proud of their past - there are a lot of countries in this world that have a cross to bear too - but they are looking after the younger generation. I’m not going down this road guys. Let’s just stay focused on the golf. That’s all I’m going to do."

Spoken like a true golfer.

He then topped off his week by having a dig at the R&A after they chose not to give him an invite to this year's Open...

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