Greg Norman has hit back at Rory McIlroy's Tour wins jibe and challenged him to spend 331 weeks at number one, as the row between the LIV Golf series and the PGA Tour continues.
The LIV Golf CEO saw his 20 PGA Tour wins surpassed by McIlroy in June at the Canadian Open, but Norman hit back at the Northern Irishman telling him to match his number of wins globally and weeks at number one. McIlroy has been critical of the controversial LIV Golf series and said beating Norman's 20 PGA Tour victories was an added incentive.
“I respect Rory but I am somewhat confused by his approach,” said Norman in an interview with Australian Golf Digest.
“But then, he is paid to sit on the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council, so he is obviously going to support the tour. I do know he has asked for sizeable appearance fees to play in Saudi Arabia. His comments also show competition is a wonderful thing.
"So, I take it as a compliment that he wanted to beat my 20 PGA Tour wins. His next goal should be to win more than 91 tournaments globally or to maintain No.1 in the world for more than 331 weeks.”
McIlroy, who is currently third in the World Golf Rankings, missed the cut at the first FedEx Cup play-off event last week. McIlroy celebrated spending 100 weeks at world number one earlier this year but is well behind the 331 recorded by Norman and the record of 683 weeks held by Tiger Woods.
McIlroy won his 21st PGA Tour win in June surpassing the number won by Norman during his professional days in the 1980s and 1990s.
At the time McIlroy told CBS : " This is a day I’ll remember for a long, long time. My 21st PGA Tour win - one more than someone else [Norman] - that gave me a little extra incentive today and I’m happy to get that.”
Americans Tiger Woods and Sam Snead share the record of most PGA Tour wins with 82 each.
