After a quiet off-season from a tour that touts itself as “golf, but louder,” LIV Golf has cranked things up a notch ahead of its second season.
LIV’s 2023 tournament schedule, which consists of 14 events spread across seven countries, is out via a report by Sports Illustrated’s Bob Harig and distributed by other media outlets, though the tour still had not posted the complete schedule to LIVGolf.com as of late Sunday. The league – 12 four-man teams over 54 holes with no cuts and still no world-ranking points – will play from late February into early November, ending with a home game for the sponsoring Saudis, who have funded LIV via the kingdom’s oil-rich Public Investment Fund.
Courses owned and operated by former President Donald Trump will host three LIV events, including a return of the finale to Trump National Doral near Miami. LIV also will plant its tournament flag at a few sites that hosted PGA and European tour events over the years. The schedule:
Feb. 24-26: El Camaleón Golf Club, Playa del Carmen, Mexico
March 17-19: Gallery Golf Club, Tucson, Arizona
March 31-April 2: Orange County National, Winter Garden, Florida
April 21-23: The Grange Golf Club, Grange, Australia
April 28-30: Sentosa Golf Club, Singapore
May 12-14: Cedar Ridge Country Club, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
May 26-28: Trump National Golf Club, Potomac Falls, Virginia
June 30-July 2: Real Club Valderrama, Sotogrande, Spain
July 7-9: Centurion Club, St. Albans, England
Aug. 4-6: Greenbrier (Old White), White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia
Aug. 11-13: Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster, New Jersey
Sept. 22-24: Rich Harvest Farms, Sugar Grove, Illinois
Oct. 20-22: Trump National Doral, Miami, Florida
Nov. 3-5: Royal Greens Golf & Country Club, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
After the announcement early last week of a TV deal with CW Network, LIV regained some of the buzz – if not any more marquee players – of its disruptive inaugural year. However, LIV still found itself in many headlines in the past week, not all of them favorable. Among them:
The PGA Tour filed a claim in federal district court in California seeking to add LIV Golf’s financial backer, the Saudis’ Public Investment Fund and its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, to the antitrust lawsuit filed by LIV last year. The filing is an effort by the tour to subject Al-Rumayyan and the PIF to the lawsuit’s discovery process. READ MORE
Nobody at LIV Golf appears to be taking the advice of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, who have called for Greg Norman to resign as commissioner of the rival tour amid its legal fight with the PGA and DP World tours. In fact, it’s just the opposite. Norman’s position grew stronger with a third high-profile exit at LIV. Majed Al-Sorour is leaving as the tour’s managing director, Sports Illustrated’s Bob Harig reported. Al-Sorour, the CEO of the Saudi Golf Federation, will remain on LIV Golf’s board of directors. The news follows the recent resignations of Atul Khosla as chief operating officer and Matt Goodman as director of franchises. READ MORE
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, DP World Tour chief Keith Pelley and COO Keith Waters have recused themselves from LIV Golf’s application process to be included in the Official World Golf Ranking, Pelley told media members at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. Pelley cited advice from counsel in the wake of LIV Golf’s antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour and a dispute in the U.K. brought by former DP World Tour members against the former European Tour. That would leave representatives of the four major championships headed by Augusta National Golf Club, PGA of America, USGA and R&A, plus former R&A chief Peter Dawson, to decide LIV’s fate with the OWGR. READ MORE
The Seminole Pro-Member, a favorite event for touring pros on the Monday after the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic, will not welcome LIV Golf members, Seminole Golf Club president Jimmy Dunne told Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch. READ MORE
Eight months after surgery on his right knee, two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson intends to play this week’s Asian Tour season-opening Saudi International before making his LIV Golf debut later in the month at the Mayakoba event. During his recovery time, Watson served as a non-playing team captain and worked as an on-course analyst at LIV events. READ MORE
Condoleezza Rice worked to use her influence as an Augusta National member and a former U.S. secretary of state to stop the Justice Department from launching an antitrust investigation into the PGA Tour, LIV Golf claims in filing related to its federal antitrust lawsuit against the tour. LIV is seeking to subpoena communications among the PGA Tour, Rice and Augusta officials. READ MORE
Could Anthony Kim, the reclusive three-time PGA Tour winner who quit tournament golf a decade ago in his mid-20s after reportedly collecting a seven-figure insurance settlement because of a career-ending injury, return to play LIV Golf? His former caddie told The New York Times that it’s a possibility. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon