Greg Norman has hit out at the US PGA Tour for stealing his idea for an elite world series of golf.
Norman, in Sydney for the Australian Open starting on Thursday, said the US PGA's move to set up a series of tournaments for the world's top players was a direct lift of an idea of his in 1994.
At the time, Norman was attacked on all fronts and was accused of trying to set up a breakaway tour when he suggested the top 40 players meet eight times a year in a series of elite events.
The US PGA opposed the idea as it feared Norman was trying to take away its best players.
Five years later, a version of Norman's original vision is in place with the US PGA running a series of world championship events restricted to the leading 50 or 60 players in the world.
Norman said he was still hurt by the way his ideas were rejected and the way he was vilified.
"It was a good idea, wasn't it?" Norman said today.
"I'm still stung by it. The treatment I received during that time was so unfair.
"For six or seven months of my life I didn't deserve the crap that I got.
"They took someone else's idea and ran with it."
Norman said his idea was wiped because the US Tour wanted to run world golf.
"It's a control thing. Pretty much what the US wants to do, the US is going to do."
