Hughes Norton knew Tiger Woods for 10-plus years and had helped guide the then-22-year-old from golf prodigy into an international megastar.
But Norton hasn’t spoken to Woods since 1998, when Woods fired him abruptly.
On this week’s episode of Subpar, Norton revisited his history with Woods and his family, which he discusses in detail in his recently released book, Rainmaker, including when Woods fired him, seemingly out of the blue. On the episode, Norton was asked what he would say to Woods if given the chance.
“I would just say, Tiger, you never gave me an explanation. You said you didn’t want to talk about it. I flew down to see you,” Norton said. “You told me not to come. We stood there and I said, ‘Let’s talk about this.’
“And you said, ‘I have nothing to say. I’m making a change. It’s over. Turn around on your heel and walk away.’
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“I said, that really isn’t a great way to treat anybody, particularly somebody that’s been fairly meaningful in your life. Would you please tell me the reasons?”
Norton said he didn’t feel Woods’ father, Earl, didn’t have much to do with his firing. Two years earlier, Earl revealed to Norton that Nike attempted to cut Norton out of Woods’ first endorsement deal with them in 1996, but Earl wouldn’t have it.
“Hughes is the guy we trust,” Norton said was Earl’s response to Nike wanting to cut him out of the deal.
Norton has a guess about Woods’ parents’ involvement in the decision to make a change in his representation.
“I know for a fact Earl tried to talk Tiger out of the decision to fire me,” Norton said. “I think what happened is Tiger had, we had moved him to Florida to save tax, get out of California, and he was on his own all the way across the country for the first time.
“And this was a decision that I don’t know for sure, but my guess is that Earl and Tita said to themselves, even if this is the wrong thing for Tiger to do, we gotta let him, you know, he’s a grown man now, he’s out of our sphere of influence, he’s on his own, we gotta support him, no matter how wrong we think this decision is.”
For more insight on Woods’ early career from Norton, including what it was like when he recruited Woods, listen to the full episode of Subpar here, or watch it below.
