Greg Norman's ugly spat with golf club reignited after new snub
The ugly history between Greg Norman and the Medalist Golf Club has been brought back into the spotlight after the Aussie golfing legend was reportedly snubbed by officials.
Norman helped design the course with Pete Dye in 1995 but had a bad fallout with the board in 2012 over changes they wanted to make to the course.
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However, the Aussie golfing legend looked set to make a stunning return to the Florida course as a TV pundit for this weekend's charity golf match involving Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, plus NFL legends Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.
According to Golfweek's Eamon Lynch, Norman was keen to return after being offered a TV gig for the event by media company Turner Sports.
However, the 65-year-old's place appears to have been taken by American pro Justin Thomas, who has been given hosting duties with Norman not featuring at all.
President of the Medalist board, Kevin Quigley, denied that his club had barred Norman from appearing and insisted to Golfweek that he couldn't understand the Aussie's interest in the first place.
“I don’t know why he would want to be involved,” Quigley said.
“His opinion of the golf course was so low that I don’t know why he would want to go on television and be a commentator to a product that he doesn’t approve of.
“I’ve never heard him make a complimentary comment about the golf course, but I don’t communicate with him regularly.”
Norman fallout centred on course changes
The bad blood between the board of the Medalist and Norman really kicked off when the club turned down the Aussie's offer to update the course, instead commissioning architect Bobby Weed to take the lead on course changes.
“It’s the end of a legacy by the board doing what the board is doing now. It hurts a lot to tell the truth. It’s a shame,” Norman wrote in an email to journalist Tim Rosaforte.
Norman accused the club of compromising the original design of the course “without consultation or discussion” with him or Dye and demanded that they cease using his name in association with the course.
“Obviously, they didn’t want me there,” he told Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers.
“The president of the golf club would say one thing and nothing would happen.
“I was told a few white lies. Actually, they weren’t white lies, they were lies. At the end of the day, I’m not going to walk into a locker room where I feel like I’m getting stabbed in the back.”
Of course every story has at least two sides and some believe that Norman simply cracked it with the club when they contracted Weed to make changes to the club, despite being offered the chance to also contribute to the design changes.
“He didn’t like the idea that anyone else was touching the golf course,” Quigley told Golfweek. “He had a hissy fit when it was changed. He had an opportunity. He chose not to participate.”
