Brash upstart LIV Golf teed off the sports world, challenged the status quo, and keeps on swinging.
LIV Golf: The Bogeymen
The inaugural season of the LIV Golf Invitational Series is in the books with Dustin Johnson earning an $18 million first prize as individual champion. But out of the gate, the startup had rattled the PGA Tour’s cage by luring 20 of the top 100 players in the world — including nine major champions — with huge signing bonuses and guaranteed cash for all golfers participating in events. However, LIV has also received backlash from critics who’ve bristled at its financial backers, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, because of the Middle Eastern nation’s human rights record.
But love it or hate it, LIV has likely made a permanent mark on a sport once associated with genteel gentlemen and country club airs.
For decades, the PGA has dominated professional golf with its regulated tournaments and traditional stroke play. But LIV charged onto the scene in 2022 with a brand-new format, boasting captain-led teams and three rounds of play — instead of the PGA’s four — and its strikingly different payout system.
The PGA has more than 100 golfers in most of its tourneys, which cut about 50 percent of the lowest performers after the initial two rounds. That’s not the case with LIV. With only 48 golfers, all players compete from the start of the first round until the end of the third — unless they withdraw.
In addition, standard PGA tournaments shoot 72 holes, while LIV sticks with 54 — hence its name, which is the Roman numeral for the number. In both circuits, players with the least number of strokes are considered winners. However, the entities’ contests differ greatly in how they begin. On the PGA Tour, the field starts on the same hole or on two different holes at staggered tee times. But LIV uses shotgun starts, which has golfers starting at the same time, but on different tees. LIV has also introduced the concept of teams, currently consisting of 12 four-man groups. Each regular season event is two simultaneous competitions — as players’ scores go toward individual and team totals.
The chasm between the two factions is also vast when it comes to prize money.
Each 2022 LIV event had a purse of $25 million — with $20 million going to individual golfers and $5 million going to teams. As there are no eliminations in LIV events, every player earns a paycheck. The same can’t be said for the PGA, in which only players who make the cut walk off with part of a smaller overall total. For example, the entire 2022 Masters pool was $15 million — $3.5 million more than the Georgia contest’s previous incarnations, but still lower than LIV’s average moneypot.
For a sweet ending, the LIV team championship, held as the eighth and final event of the season at Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami, had a $50 million purse — with $16 million going to captain Dustin Johnson and his winning 4 Aces team, consisting of Talor Gooch, Patrick Reed and Pat Perez.
Some of the other major names who played LIV’s tourneys included Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Sergio Garcia. However, there’s one familiar face who refused LIV’s invitation — and their reported signing offer of $700 to $800 million — Tiger Woods.
Woods, who’s said to have a net worth of more than $1 billion, has decried the so-called easy money of LIV and asks, “What is the incentive to practice and earn it in the dirt?’’
He also insists, “I know what the PGA Tour stands for and what we have done and what the Tour has given us — the ability to chase after our careers and to earn what we get and the trophies we have been able to play for and the history that has been a part of this game.”
But not everyone agrees that the old ways should be set in stone. In fact, LIV’s mission statement crows the aim of the tour is “to modernize and supercharge the game of professional golf through expanded opportunities for both players and fans alike.”
Meanwhile, legendary linksman Greg Norman, LIV’s CEO, has hit back at criticism over the tour’s hefty purses being filled with Saudi money and LIV players being banned at some PGA events, which he says smacks of “hypocrisy.” Norman also admits he’s “blown away” by some sponsors dropping professional golfers for joining LIV because of its Saudi ties — despite having themselves done billions of dollars in business in the Gulf state kingdom.
“The PGA Tour, I think, has about 27 sponsors who do 40-plus billion dollars’ worth of annual business in Saudi Arabia,” he says.
“Why doesn’t the PGA Tour call the CEOs of [these businesses] saying that we can’t do business with you because you are doing business with Saudi Arabia? Why are they picking on the professional golfers?”
Norman took another swing at the PGA by claiming it has long had a “monopoly” and is unwilling to make room for another high-profile U.S. golf tour — and will rabidly protect its turf.
“They just want to shut us down whatever way they can,” he gripes. “So they will use whatever leverage point they can.”
Despite the controversy, Norman remains bullish on LIV’s future and says, “They’re not going to shut us down because the product is speaking for itself. We have, almost on a daily basis, we get calls every day from players [saying] ‘I want in.’”
As LIV gears up for 2023, sources say company brass are intent on nailing down U.S. TV deals — as last season’s play was only available on LIVGolf.com and YouTube — and plan to continue drawing top talent.
“Quite honestly, the players on the outside looking in to see what’s happening with LIV today, these guys still talk to each other, right? The ones on LIV feel like they have been liberated. There are players on the PGA Tour that we’re speaking to today that want to be liberated,” Norman says.
LIV Golf’s second season will tee off in February and expand to 14 tournaments with the total prize money swelling to a whopping $405 million, insiders share.
“I just love the game so much, and I want to grow the game of golf,” says Norman.
“We at LIV see that opportunity not just for the men but for the women. We at LIV see it for NCAA and younger generations. We at LIV see it as a pathway to opportunities for the kids to experience a new [world] out there.
“LIV is the future of golf.”
Naturally we give kudos to the excellent use of golf-centric puns used throughout, although the topic does lend itself to a fairly easy drive. That said, we continue to be amazed at people’s reaction to learning professional athletes for the most part DO IT FOR THE MONEY. … You can, of course, learn pretty much to your heart’s content about LIV Golf on the internet — which at this point almost seems completely contrived for the exact purpose of promoting controversy. You can also remain steadfastly locked into your own pre-existing opinion too, thinking as you will about golf, or tournaments, or pro athletes, or whatever else you’d like. We all need our illusions. … In other words, you LIV your life. We will LIV ours.
