![]() The league’s tournaments are only shown on The CW through a revenue-sharing arrangement, and not even on certain major-market CW channels. That’s good news for the Peter Uihleins and Carlos Ortizes of the tour, who are banking literal millions every week, but bad news for LIV’s attempts to break through to a wider audience. Through the year’s first two events, for instance, exactly one major winner ranks among LIV’s top 10 - Sergio Garcia at 10th. With all due respect to the LIV season’s two winners, Charles Howell III and Danny Lee, LIV is suffering from a severe lack of star power at the top of the leaderboard. Johnson and Koepka won events last year, but are currently ranked 11th and 36th, respectively, on LIV’s points list. LIV’s primary problem now is that many of its biggest draws - Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Cam Smith, Patrick Reed - have struggled so far this season. But shock value only goes so far, and the dual shocks of “wait, who signed with LIV?” and “Greg Norman said what?” lost their effectiveness over time. The sharp-elbowed “Golf, But Louder” ethos of LIV earned it plenty of headlines in 2022, and deservedly so - LIV brought much-needed change to the sport. You can start a business based on disruption, but you can’t build one on it. ![]() But it’s a sign that what got LIV to this point won’t get them any farther. None of this is a sign that LIV is anywhere close to failure indeed, the team concept has real merit and could be - along with increased purses across the board - LIV’s lasting contribution to the game of golf. The Fire Pit noted the newly cost-conscious approaches to daily tour life, from travel expense cutbacks to small amenities like snacks. Players have expressed some concern that their contracts were for 10 events and they’re now expected to play 14, and that money won by the team goes back into the team, rather than directly to the players themselves.Īlthough LIV is backed by the virtually limitless resources of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the stream of those resources to LIV apparently isn’t limitless. At the same time, LIV has been increasing the focus and emphasis on its four-man teams.Ĭombined, those two forces have LIV’s players a bit concerned, as the Fire Pit Collective reported from the tour’s second event in Tucson. The result was so successful - from an attention-grabbing standpoint, at least - that LIV executed its 2024 plans in 2023, upping the schedule from 10 to 14 events. LIV Golf’s first season comprised 10 no-cut, high-purse events. A damning report and low ratings from the league’s second event of the season are showing the challenges LIV Golf faces as it seeks to go from disruptor to standalone, self-sustaining league. It always seemed a bit too good to be true, didn’t it? Get paid untold millions to play less golf! But now, as LIV Golf enters its next phase, reality is apparently dawning on LIV’s players and management, and reality is a whole lot colder and harsher than the dream. Do you remember him? (Zachary BonDurant-USA TODAY Sports)
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