AUGUSTA, Ga. – Some Augusta National patrons surely did a double-take Wednesday at the sight of a certain blonde-haired man roaming the course in a straw hat.and news of his presence quickly spread. But another detail about the visit emerged Thursday, thanks to Norman’s son, Greg Jr.“My dad paid for a ticket on the secondary market to attend the Masters as a patron. He was denied one directly after going through the proper professional channels,” Norman Jr. wrote on social media.
The general public only has two ways of getting into the year’s first major at a face-value price: be a regular ticketholder or win the annual ticket lottery.That’s where Norman, the two-time major winner who finished in top 5 at Augusta eight times, including some of golf’sBut once on the grounds, he said he did not receive any of the backlash that has surrounded the existence of the Saudi-backed league he helps run.
“Walking around here today, there’s not one person who said to me, ‘Why did you do LIV?’ ” he said to the. “There’s been hundreds of people, even security guys, stopping me, saying, ‘Hey, what you’re doing is fantastic.’ To me, that tells you that what we have and the platform fits within the ecosystem, and it’s good for the game of golf.”