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You think you might have a heard a tiny bit about LIV Golf in the last while? Just a little bit?
If you’re wondering what all the hubub is about, welcome to golf’s version of its own civil war. We love to cover new formats, leagues and more at Business Of Sport, so, we’ll look at what LIV Golf is offering up.
LIV Golf has been created as an alternative to the current (and dominant) PGA Tour. It attempts to apply the principles of arena-style sporting events to the world of golf. The LIV system, which has a fundamentally different business model than the current conventional structure, argues that it enables greater financial advantage for players beyond just winning tournaments.
How? Unlike the PGA Tour, LIV Golf pays appearance fees. Yes. Just for turning up. Hence, players competing for the $20–25 million purse can get additional, guaranteed payment. In addition, they have the chance to win an additional $5 million prize for the team competition at each tournament.
Through massive pay packets, attracting well-known players, and slick marketing, the new series, funded by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, has positioned itself as “an opportunity to revive golf.” One of its slogans is “Golf But Louder.” I’m not sure golf needs to be louder, but hey, ho.
The goal? Well, the PGA Tour has been the highest level of professional golf for almost a century. LIV Golf want to position it as a player-power-focused alternative.
The Format for the LIV golf
With three rounds instead of four and only 48 competitors instead of the PGA Tour’s rosters, which may be three times as large some weeks, LIV Golf has created shorter tournaments with smaller fields, with concurrent individual and team play events.
Every round begins with a shotgun start, which means that competitors tee off from every hole on the course simultaneously and then move around the layout of the course from there because there is no cut midway through the competition to lop off the stragglers.
In many aspects, the LIV Golf individual competition will resemble a standard golf competition. In three rounds, the lowest score wins. The players competing in the team event will be divided up by captains into four-person squads (teams like Fireballs and Majesticks) that will compete in different competitions each week for different prize pools.
Prize money on offer from LIV Golf
So we get to the crux of the matter really. The incredible amount of prize money is one of the LIV Golf Tour’s most alluring (and controversial) features.
There is an incredible $255 million up for grabs across the eight events, with each regular team event delivering a purse of $25 million. Within that, $20 million is divided among the competitors, with the winner reportedly receiving $4 million.
The astounding sum is more than twice the total prize money for the British Masters. Even the participants at the bottom of the table get a tidy $120,000.
The money pot extends to the Team Championship. The 12 four-person teams will compete for a share of a stunning $50 million for the championship event.
According to LIV Golf, the victorious team will receive $16 million, while the last-place team will still take home $1 million.
The players that will be participating in the tournament
A total of 48 players have already signed up for the 2022 season across 12 clubs.
This has also been the main source of controversy as players riff off about the merits (or not) of joining LIV Golf.
Two clear camps have of thought have emerged. Loyalists to the PGA like Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy have come out strongly against LIV Golf’s impact to date. On the other side, are many older players who have become enthusiastic boosters for the new project, especially Graeme McDowell and CEO and commissioner Greg Norman.
Norman for one has even said that LIV Golf has ‘no interest’ in calling a truce with the PGA Tour.
LIV Golf isn’t just filled with players past their prime. It appears the cash is turning some unexpected heads, with Cameron Smith joining LIV Golf. His defection from the PGA Tour comes just a mere few months since he won his first major title The British Open Championship.
The LIV Golf competitors include:
- Cameron Smith
- Phil Mickelson
- Bryson DeChambeau
- Brooks Koepka
- Patrick Reed
- Kevin Na
- Dustin Johnson
- Sergio García
- Martin Kaymer
- Graeme McDowell
- Louis Oosthuizen
- Charl Schwartzel
- Lee Westwood
How can you watch LIV Golf?
A key area that LIV Golf has struggled so far is to land a broadcasting deal. In fact, reports revealed recently that a lengthy list of broadcasters have turned down the new league. The list includes ESPN, CBS, NBC, Fox, Apple, and Amazon.
Currently it is broadcasts on Facebook and YouTube, while it also has a broadcast deal with sports streaming giant DAZN.
What happens next?
Strap yourself in. It seems both LIV Golf and the PGA Tour are tooling up for a long, protracted war over the future of the game of golf.
With equal amounts of power and money at stake, it has, of course, gone the legal route (much like the European Super League for soccer). Players who had been suspended by the PGA Tour intiated an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour and LIV Golf is now listed as one of the plaintiffs in the suit.
A trial date could come in 2024.
