Greg Norman snubbed by Masters, won’t attend Augusta for 30th anniversary of 1996 heartbreak
Evin Priest
Augusta, Georgia: Greg Norman won’t attend the Masters after being overlooked again by Augusta National for a guest invitation that’s customarily given to past major winners.
The Australian legend was not invited in 2023 and 2024 as officials attempted to keep the focus on the major during a divisive period in professional golf caused by the Norman-influenced LIV Golf rebel competition.
This year, Norman will be overseas for meetings relating to growing his golf course design empire. The winner of two British Opens said he would not even watch this year’s Masters TV broadcast – although he will follow the scores – on the 30-year anniversary of his 1996 heartbreak at Augusta National.
On a Sunday that went down in Masters history, Norman led by six going into the final round, only to finish second as England great Nick Faldo took the green jacket.
Three decades later, Norman, now 71, has a renewed focus on his Greg Norman Golf Course Design firm after departing LIV Golf in September, where he served as chief executive and commissioner for four years. Norman is also on the organising committee for the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane.
But the unmistakable presence of “The Shark” won’t be visible at Augusta National this week after telling this masthead he had not received a guest invitation. Norman was runner-up at the 1986, 1987, and 1996 Masters.
“Well, I won’t be there, that’s for sure; I never received the normal invitation from the Masters,” Norman said via a phone call. “I won’t even watch it [because] I will be out of the country, to be honest with you. But I will follow the results day by day to see who’s leading, what’s happening.
“It just seems like I’ve moved on from that, too, which is a crying shame because [the] Masters and Augusta and a number of friends I have in Augusta National, the powers to be decided to go in a different direction. So, I have to accept that.”
In 2023, Norman, then CEO of LIV, was not invited to be a guest at Augusta National. Club chairman Fred Ridley said that year the club wanted “the focus this week to be on the Masters competition.”
Ridley also said Norman had attended the tournament just twice in the previous 10 years. A year later, Norman purchased a ticket on the secondary market and attended several days of the 2024 Masters.
None of the fans at Augusta National in 2024 seemed to care about the schism in golf between LIV and the PGA Tour. Fans on the grounds swarmed the Australian as though he were still in his swashbuckling days of being a regular Masters contender.
“Getting out to the venue was something that I really, really enjoyed when I bought my own ticket a couple of years ago to go there,” Norman said.
“To feel it and walk around with the patrons was wonderful. I’ll never forget that couple of days, to be honest with you. Because the support I had, even in the heat of everything with LIV and the PGA Tour. The overall sentiment was just overwhelmingly positive.”
Now in its fifth year, LIV Golf has established some legitimacy within the golf ecosystem.
The league receives world rankings points for the top 10 finishers at its events, which are now 72 holes, as well as an exemption into the US and British Opens for its top points earner.
Norman, though, departed LIV last year after getting the league off the ground in 2022 and signing major champions such as Cameron Smith, Bryson DeChambeau, and Dustin Johnson.
Even Rory McIlroy, with whom Norman had traded public barbs, praised him for his role in the upstart league. “He is probably one of the only guys in golf who could have taken on that role; he got it off the ground, and you have to commend him for that,” McIlroy said in 2025.
Norman remains proud of his contribution to LIV as an administrator, and the competitive changes it triggered on the PGA Tour.
The enormous purses for LIV’s 14 events and its big-name fields prompted the PGA Tour to create a series of $US20 million tournaments called “Signature Events.” The US circuit also partnered with Strategic Sports Group (SSG) to create PGA Tour Enterprises, where nearly 200 PGA Tour members were given the opportunity to become equity holders.
Fans could have hit the tension between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf with a 3-iron, although the four major championships remained neutral ground. Norman said that wasn’t LIV’s intention.
“We weren’t trying to destroy the PGA Tour. We never were aimed at doing that. Never, ever,” Norman said.
“We’re always going to be collaborative. We’re always going to work in the same ecosystem. And my final comment that I’m most proud of is the fact that we brought private equity to the game of golf, obviously through LIV, but now look at the PGA Tour. They’re bigger, they’re happier, they’ve got better innovation, the players are making more money. Nobody says thank you, LIV.”
Norman has since turned his long-term focus to his course design, having already crafted 140 courses across 35 countries. His courses remain host sites across the DP World Tour, PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
He has also relished a role on the organising committee for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games.
“The organising committee, I’m enjoying that more than I ever anticipated,” he said. “I’m sitting on a couple of subcommittees within that board. So to see the opportunity, what we’ve got for Brisbane, for Queensland, for Australia, and to think Australia is going to host three Summer Games, such a small country, is just a phenomenal effort.
“And the big thing that really struck me was Brisbane’s going to be the smallest city ever to host an Olympic Games. So, the opportunity [has] hit me very powerfully, actually.”
