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Tiger Woods’ former agent, Hughes Norton, has been dropping all sorts of bombs about the PGA legend while discussing his new tell-all book, Rainmaker: Superagent Hughes Norton and the Money-Grab Explosion of Golf from Tiger to LIV and Beyond.
Norton, who first began working with Tiger Woods when the golfer was just 13-years-old, claims to be the architect behind the man who is now worth over $1 billion.
He now claims that Woods fired him out of the blue and that he felt betrayed by Tiger after orchestrating so many big money deals.
“It was betrayal with a capital B,” Norton claims about being fired by Woods, DailyMail.com reports. “On a professional level, because I thought I’d done my job in spades. And on a personal level, because it was such a rejection of a relationship that we had built together for 10 years.”
Hughes Norton claims the day he was fired in September of 1998 by an “emotionless” and “zombie-like” Woods was the last time he ever heard from him.
“The solace I can take, which doesn’t provide much, is this: He was an equal opportunity zombie with relationships, his swing coaches, his lawyer, the guy negotiated the IMG representation deal, with caddies. When it’s over, it’s over,” said Norton.
“It is the way he terminates relationships with everyone. Whether it’s girlfriends, whether it’s his former golf coaches. It’s ironic, really. In a way he’s so good at confrontation on the golf course. If he’s playing you, he will beat your brains out every single time. But when it comes to confronting things like me and other people that are in his life, he has no social skills whatsoever. It’s maddening, actually.”
Hughes Norton also claims in his book that Greg Norman, who he calls a “classic narcissist,” stole the idea for the LIV Tour from IMG founder Mark McCormack, who had already presented it to Arnold Palmer.
“LIV, which Greg has claimed as his own genius idea for a world tour, was actually thought up 30 years before Greg ever brought it out as his by this incredibly bright at-the-time manager of Arnold Palmer,” said Norton.