Norman was captured shaking hands with Australian star Min Woo Lee and strolling through Augusta National on Wednesday despite being unwelcome by the club.
As CEO of LIV Golf, Norman was not invited to last year's Masters - or to the landmark 150th British Open in 2022 despite being a two-time champion - and had to buy his own ticket for this week.
Yes. All this is true.— Greg Norman Jr (@GregJrNorman) 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. He had to be there anyway to support the LIV players.It was an amazing experience;… pic.twitter.com/Yt5Uk9r7nGApril 11, 2024
"I'm here because we have 13 (LIV) players that won 10 Masters between them," Norman told The Washington Post.
"So I'm here just to support them, do the best I can to show them, 'Hey, you know, the boss is here rooting for you'."
Australia's long-time former world No.1 was back at Augusta for Thursday's first round, starting out watching defending champion Jon Rahm, who switched to LIV this year on a deal reportedly worth more than half a billion dollars.
Greg Norman Jr took to social media on Thursday to confirm "Yes. All this is true."
"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," he posted on X.
"He had to be there anyway to support the LIV players. It was an amazing experience; hundreds of golf fans approached him walking outside the ropes.
"All positive support of him and LIV. Not one person said anything negative to him."
Norman Jr said "this is exactly the point of me posting this".
"We have have received a lot of hate over the years, but this stems from financially incentivized opposing parties or bottom-of-the-barrel sociopathic online trolls," he said.
"The vast majority of folks we run into are positive, encouraging, fans of LIV, or simply fans of golf.
"So, in light of this, here's to an epic Masters. Four days where we ptut all the BS behind us, sit back, and watch a LIV player take the green jacket."Greg junior and Greg senior would undoubtedly have been hugely happy to watch one of the LIV rebels in Bryson DeChambeau capturing the first-round lead with an eight-birdie 65 in the first round.
DeChambeau was certainly happy to Norman around and said there was nothing sinister in the Shark's presence at Augusta.
"Look, I've not had any poor interactions with Greg my entire career," he said.
"He was with Cobra for a long time when I was with Cobra, as well Cobra PUMA, and he was always great to me and he's been great to me through LIV.
"I respect him coming out here and showing support. People can view it multiple ways. I just look at it as a sign that he cares and nothing more than that.
"And if people have a different perspective on that, then that's up for them to decide.
"But in my opinion, it just shows that he really cares about the game in general."
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