As LIV Golf completes its first offseason, observers have no reference point for a typical stretch of down time on the rival tour. But this much is certain: For a tour with such a boisterous debut last year in the professional game, the volume on the hype machine has been turned down significantly in recent weeks.
As of late Sunday, LIV Golf had not announced its complete 2023 schedule. The Saudi-funded tour intends to play 14 worldwide events and adopt a franchise model of 12 four-man teams in its sophomore season, which will start late next month at Mayakoba in Mexico. That much, we know. And the prize money – $25 million purses, plus a $50 million season finale and bonuses last year – promises once again to be the biggest in golf, courtesy of the Saudis’ oil-rich Public Investment Fund.
As for the rest of the story? LIV Golf, for once, isn’t talking. But that’s not to say that there was no news about the tour in recent weeks. Some of it even involved golf, but as you’re about to read, not all of it seemed to align with the tour’s stated intention to “grow the game” worldwide.
Two key leaders have left LIV Golf after only months on the job, according to media reports. Atul Khosla resigned as LIV Golf’s chief operating officer after less than one year, The New York Times reported. Matt Goodman, who was hired in May as the director of franchises, also is out, Sports Illustrated confirmed after an initial report in Sports Business Journal. Replacements have not been disclosed. READ MORE and MORE
LIV Golf is using its federal antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour to compile information on 9/11 protesters who have actively campaigned against the Saudis’ involvement in golf, the PGA Tour alleges in a Bloomberg report. The PGA Tour contends that the Saudis want to “build an intelligence file” against the 9/11 families in what would be a sinister turn of events. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the U.S., which killed 2,996 and led to American military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq, were citizens of Saudi Arabia. The kingdom’s leaders have denied any involvement in 9/11. READ MORE
LIV Golf added three events for 2023, bringing to seven the number of dates finalized for what is expected to be a 14-tournament LIV Golf League. LIV will play March 17-19 at The Gallery Golf Club in Tucson, Arizona; May 12-14 at Cedar Ridge Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Aug. 4-6 at the Old White Course at Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. READ MORE
Qatar has aligned itself with LIV Golf via an Asian Tour International Series event at Doha Golf Club, ending the Middle East nation’s 25-year association with the DP World Tour. The Feb. 16-19 Qatar tournament will cap the Asian Tour’s three-week season-opening visit to the Arabian Peninsula that begins early next month. READ MORE
Despite its alliance with the Asian Tour, LIV Golf faces a figurative wall in Asia that is being erected by the established professional tours. The PGA Tour and DP World Tour moved to marshal their defenses against LIV, announcing alliances with three professional tours in Asia: the Korean PGA, Japan PGA and Professional Golf Tour of India. The objective is to provide pathways onto the DP World Tour and, ultimately, the PGA Tour while fending off LIV Golf’s incursion. READ MORE and MORE and MORE
LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman, in an interview with the U.K.’s Bunkered magazine, said that Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods have “no idea what they’re talking about” in calling for him to resign so that the professional game can find a way forward. “I have got the full support from my chairman. One hundred percent. One thousand percent. There has never been one thing to suggest otherwise,” Norman said. “But I know what they’re trying to do. They’re trying to bait me to draw me into a public back and forth with them, and I’m not going to go down that childish path. I’m totally confident, totally proud and totally committed to this job, and that is building out LIV Golf in perpetuity and giving players and fans another kind of golf to enjoy. And what you’re seeing is that LIV is a leader. The PGA Tour and DP World tour, they’re followers.” READ MORE
The rise of LIV Golf ranked as the No. 1 sports business story of 2022, Sports Business Journal reported in a wide-ranging survey of its readers. Interestingly, though 27 percent of respondents rated LIV Golf as the top story, 82 percent said they had not watched a LIV Golf event. READ MORE
The term “LIV Golf” was the most widely searched golf-related phrase in 2022, according to information provided by Google to Golf Digest. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon