The bitter war between the Professional Golf Association and the Saudi-backed upstart LIV circuit is plumbing new depths of anger and acrimony, with Tiger Woods calling Greg Norman to quit for the good of the sport.

Norman, LIV Golf CEO, Norman is not the least bit bothered by the criticism, firing back that he pays “zero attention” to anything and everything Woods say, which adds also applies to Rory McIlroy, another bitter critic.

Earlier this week, multiple major-winner Woods said Norman “has to go”, with a similar sentiment offered last month by world No.1 McIlroy.

“I pay zero attention to McIlroy and Woods, right?” Norman told Today’s Golfer on Saturday.

“They have their agenda for whatever reason. They’re saying whatever they want to say. It has no bearing or effect on me. I’m going to be with LIV for a long, long period of time.”

Tangle of lawsuits

The new tour, backed by Saudi Arabia, has whisked away many PGA golfers lured by higher financial payouts.

Meanwhile, players loyal to the PGA Tour have been irked by the way the Norman-led LIV operates, with legal suits flying in both directions.

Woods said the two tours will not find peace until Norman is removed from his leadership role.

“I see that there’s an opportunity out there if both organisations put a stay on their litigation,” Woods said on Tuesday.

“But that’s the problem – they’ve got to put a stay on it … there’s no willingness to negotiate if you have a litigation against you.

“But Greg has to go, first of all, and then obviously litigation against us and then our countersuit against them, those would then have to be at a stay as well. So then we can talk, we can all talk freely.”

Woods remarks were similar to ones McIlroy made at the DP World Tour Championship last month.

“There’s a few things that need to happen,” McIlroy said.

‘Greg needs to go’

“So there’s 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.

“There’s a few things that I would like to see on the LIV side that needs to happen. Greg needs to go. He just needs to exit stage left.

“He’s made his mark, but now is the right time to sort of say, ‘Look, 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’.”

Norman, though, believes he can be the one to restore equilibrium to the sport.

“Of course it can happen under my leadership,” Norman told Today’s Golfer.

“I mean, Tiger might be a messenger, right? Who knows? All I know is we are going to keep doing what we’re doing with LIV, and we are just going to keep moving forward.

“No matter where I go in the world, nobody – not one person – has said what I’m doing is stupid or wrong.”

-AAP