Among the many missteps LIV Golf has made since it dynamited its way onto the global golf scene, perhaps the most fundamental was its approach.
From the start, LIV Golf and particularly its former CEO Greg Norman insisted that the professional game should immediately accept the organization’s new paradigm, affording it all the respect and ranking points that more than two dozen other professional tours around the world receive.
Never mind that LIV Golf’s guaranteed contracts, team play and the absence of real relegation created too many gray areas in a rankings system that lives in black and white.
Call it vanity, arrogance or ignorance – or all of those – it was a costly miscalculation.
With two announcements last week – one detailing more opportunities for aspiring players to earn their way onto LIV and the other expanding events to 72 holes – it’s clear that LIV Golf wants to assimilate itself into the larger landscape in order to be included in the world ranking.
It’s an overdue but important step for LIV and, at some point, it seems, OWGR chairman Trevor Immelman will announce that LIV Golf will be included in the ranking. It will feel like a badge of honor for the league and, given time to settle in, it will give more validity to the ranking.
While LIV CEO Scott O’Neil recently told an audience that he and new PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp “have talked a few times,” that doesn’t mean a merger or a mutually beneficial coexistence is imminent. Just read the PGA Tour’s message regarding any members who might enter the LIV Promotions event in January – players will not be granted a release to play in the event because it is in Florida – to understand both sides are still focused on their own interests.
Remember it was O’Neil who earlier this summer said “we are the good guys” when discussing LIV’s debatable place in the game, so understand there is plenty of spin going on. However, it’s also fair to assume that the animosity that existed between Norman and outgoing PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has been removed from any potential discussions between the two sides, a needed step.
As Rory McIlroy correctly pointed out last week in Abu Dhabi, LIV’s move from 54-hole events to 72 holes isn’t a complete game-changer.
“I don't think three rounds versus four rounds is what was holding them back,” McIlroy said.
“It certainly puts them more in line with traditional golf tournaments than what we've all done. It brings them back into not really being a destructor and sort of is falling more in line with what everyone else does. But if that’s what they felt they needed to do to get the ranking points, I guess that’s what they had to do.”
“Some of the format issues – 54 holes, no cut, 48 players – is capable of being dealt with mathematically in the system. Things that can’t be are team golf and individual golf [together].”
Peter Dawson
When the OWGR rejected LIV’s request to be included in the ranking two years ago, then chairman Peter Dawson told Global Golf Post that it wasn’t the 54-hole format or the 48-player fields that earned the rejection.
“Some of the format issues – 54 holes, no cut, 48 players – is capable of being dealt with mathematically in the system. Things that can’t be are team golf and individual golf [together],” Dawson said.
“But the main one is qualification and relegation criteria that apply. With contracts and team captains, there are many ways to stay on the LIV tour even if you are not playing well.
“If LIV could find a way to come up with a more open competition style and relegation, we would certainly consider that. There should be many more vacancies than perhaps there are. I don’t think it’s fair to the other 24 eligible tours and the thousands of players trying to get a start each week.”
If and when LIV Golf begins receiving ranking points, they will be scaled to reflect the relative strength of the tour. While Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau provide the abundance of star power on LIV, the smaller fields and limited depth will water down the ranking value. Winning an LIV event isn’t the same as winning, say, the Genesis Invitational.
To this point, the best players have come together in the major championships and, should LIV Golf qualify for world ranking points, it would be easier to assure that going forward. It won’t make selling LIV Golf to the American public any easier. While there are places around the world where the LIV model has succeeded, it remains an outlier in the United States.
While the move to Fox marginally increased LIV’s U.S. TV viewership this year, its weekend audiences (338,000 on average) were roughly one-eighth of what the PGA Tour drew (2.6 million).
The team concept doesn’t resonate and the 54-hole format made it feel less like a true tournament and more like an exhibition. If it won’t scrap the team thing entirely, it has been suggested that completing the team play on Saturday and leaving Sunday for determining the individual champion would help LIV.
Not unlike the decision last year to no longer allow players to wear shorts during tournament rounds, LIV is leaning more into tournament golf’s traditions, apparently having seen the light regarding how much change golf fans actually want, which is not that much.
“Everyone wants to see the best players in the world competing against each other, especially in the majors, and for the good of the game, we need a path forward,” Bryson DeChambeau said in a statement announcing the format change.
The announcements last week were two more steps down that path. Where it ultimately leads remains to be seen.
E-MAIL RON
TOP PHOTO: HECTOR VIVAS, GETTY IMAGES