If Greg Norman was in any doubt concerning his new pariah standing in golf’s corridors of power then it was confirmed at last week’s Masters. “I normally get an invitation every January when they go out as a past major-winner,” Norman says. “Not this time. Although they did send me a grounds pass on the night before the first round.”

Needless to say, Norman, 67, did not attend. If he did not much fancy the prospect of battling those hoards buying their Masters mugs and trying to gain a glimpse of the action, then the more pressing need was at last to get the $225m LIV Golf Invitational Series off the ground. 

“Don’t call it the Super Golf League, mate”, the Australian says, during a wide-ranged and at times passionate conversation regarding the Saudi Arabia breakaway circuit. 

The Great White Shark will always have his admirers, but to many in the game in the last year he has emerged as the ultimate predator. 

Appointed chief executive of LIV Golf Investments, Norman fronts the mission of his Saudi paymasters to challenge the status quo of the elite male game and, as he always did with his clubs, has done so with fire and gusto. Yet it is fair to say this reputation has taken a battering as he has been portrayed as the willing champion up to his arms in dirty suds and Saudis. From swashbuckler to sportswasher.

“Look, I’ll be honest with you, yes, the criticisms have stung a little bit, but I’m a big believer that you can’t run through a brick wall without getting bloody,” he says. “I’m willing to run through this wall because I’m a big believer in growing the game of golf on a global basis.”

Growing the game is the central theme to the breakaway circuit that, this year will consist of eight events, and will begin in St Albans with a $25m, 48-man tournament in June. The obvious question to Norman is how we are supposed to reconcile GTG with the eye-popping amounts being paid to the LIV converts, not least Norman himself. Sources within the traditional tours claim that Norman could be receiving as much as $50m a year.

“Who told you that?” Norman asks with a wide grin. “Am I being paid? Yes. Am I being paid a fortune? What’s the definition of a fortune? Put this in perspective. I walked away as CEO of Greg Norman Company to take on this role. Big decision for me. To hand over the reins of a company I personally started from scratch, to where it is today. I didn’t do it for my bank account. My account was just fine. I did it because I saw a lasting opportunity to break the monopoly that’s been in power for 53 years. As a player, I railed against it.”

In November 1994, Norman pitched his idea for a World Golf Tour: eight events with $3 million purses for the top 30 in the rankings. It had legs until they were ruthlessly cut away by the PGA Tour. The injustice burned inside Norman for decades as he witnessed what he calls “a closed shop” tie supposedly independent contractors to strict regulations when and where they could appear. 

“They told me once I couldn’t play in the Australian Open,” he says. “My Open! That p—– me off. The hypocrisy was putrid. It still is. If someone wants to put up millions for the pros to compete, in a new exciting format, then why the hell shouldn’t they? It’s the player’s choice and we are giving them another option. I’m extremely proud of that.”

‘I understand how people want to call it ‘sportswashing’ – but look at the bigger picture’

Yet how can you feel proud of the provenance of the riches? Norman has spoken before about his disgust at the murder of Jamal Khashoggi – “reprehensible,” he said last month – but although the journalist’s bones were sawn and stuffed in bags not even four years ago, Norman declares it is time to move on. 

“Every country’s got a cross they bear”, he says. “My home country is just as guilty as anybody. I am the type of person who looks into the future, not out of the past, and see what Saudi Arabia has done in a very short period of time to invest in the game. 

“I can understand how people want to call it ‘sportswashing’, but look at the bigger picture from a commercial aspect and from the dollars that have come in. And why point the finger at us? It was ok for the European Tour when they went to play in Saudi Arabia and why is it ok for the women to play the Aramco Series in Saudi? There just seems no real logic behind the stance.

“The PGA Tour are not directly saying ‘sportswashing’, but they’re having people say it for them. Yet it’s ok for them to go into China, with the Uyghurs? Seriously? Step back and take a really good, honest, hard look at the facts and then you’ll see, ‘Hey, Greg Norman is not such an ogre after all. Greg Norman and his team of world class individuals’.”