In 1998, just two years after Tiger Woods turned pro and changed the face of golf, one of the key figures behind his rise got a phone call that ended everything. Picture this: after engineering the richest rookie endorsement haul in sports history, a man who spent years helping sculpt a teenage Tiger Woods into a global icon was unceremoniously dumped. No handshake. No face-to-face. Just a phone call. No call back since. That man hasn’t heard a single word from Woods in over two decades. This was no second-stringer or swing coach. It was the architect of the entire off-course empire that Woods stood on the moment he turned pro. And the fall-out wasn’t just business. It was, in his own words, “still inexplicable.”Now, 25 years later, he’s telling his side of the story and drawing a biting comparison to another golf legend who fired him: Greg Norman. One, he says, walked away like a CEO. The other left like a ghost.The person in question here is Hughes Norton. Norton didn’t just work in golf; he ran the kingdom behind the curtain. Plucked from Harvard Business School by IMG founder Mark McCormack, Norton eventually represented a who’s who of golf elites. Among his two crown jewels? Greg Norman and a young, jaw-droppingly talented Tiger Woods. In a recent interview on GOLF’s Subpar podcast, Norton peeled back the curtain on both relationships and the raw way they ended. Norman, “The Shark,” cut ties with IMG in the early ’90s. Norton had spent over a decade elevating Norman’s brand into a commercial powerhouse.Fascinating @golf_subpar this week with super agent Hughes Norton! From being Tigers first agent to Greg Norman and much more! We dive into his incredible career! OUT NOW! https://t.co/MRr8R1QsgB pic.twitter.com/jwPAWiCURE— Colt Knost (@ColtKnost) June 18, 2025Then one day in Australia, Norman informed him it was over. Norton said he was blindsided. Still, he admitted, “At least he was loyal for that whole period of time and appreciated the work we had done.” The split, while painful, felt like part of the game. “So that’s kind of… you know, you’re playing with fire,” he reflected. Elite players, huge egos. It happens. But the Tiger Woods fall-out? That hit different.Woods’s parents had hired Norton to negotiate the deals before Tiger even turned pro. Norton delivered: a $40 million Nike deal and a $20 million Titleist deal before Woods had struck a single shot professionally. “Whereas with Tiger, it was just a complete 180,” Norton said. “I mean, it’s insanity.” According to Norton, just 24 months into Woods’s pro career—after his work had netted Tiger tens of millions—he was fired over the phone. No warning. No thanks. “And for him, 24 months in, to fire me over the phone is just still inexplicable,” Norton recalled. “And I’ve never spoken to him since that moment. He’s never given me any response. And sadly, he does this with a lot of people in his life.” That last part stings. And it reveals a bigger pattern.Woods’s fallout record: A pattern of cold departuresNorton’s isn’t the only scar in Tiger Woods’s wake. Over the years, others close to him—caddies, coaches, agents—have found themselves suddenly on the outside, looking in. Steve Williams, Woods’s longtime caddie, helped him win 13 majors. Their partnership lasted 12 years before Woods abruptly ended it in 2011. Williams was furious. The split left him bitter enough to make a racially insensitive remark in public months later. However, Tiger responded coolly, calling Williams “not a racist,” but they never worked together again.There’s also Butch Harmon, Woods’s swing coach during his meteoric Tiger Slam, was dismissed in 2002. Years later, Harmon publicly criticized Woods’s refusal to admit he was struggling, prompting Woods to fire back that such remarks should’ve been made privately.Hank Haney, who took over as coach after Harmon, said his time with Woods was “always… dysfunctional.” Even though Haney resigned, he has since described Woods as difficult to work with—private, intense, often impenetrable. Even Mark Steinberg, Woods’s agent who succeeded Norton, left IMG to start his own agency— and while Woods followed him without drama, it too reinforced the theme: Woods prefers control. When change comes, it’s swift. And mostly silent.The post Tiger Woods Treated Former Employee Poorly as Big Greg Norman Comparison Made: ‘At Least He Was Loyal’ appeared first on EssentiallySports.