The level of competition on LIV isn't nearly as poor as it's critics would have you believe. Every time a pro defects there are articles calling him "old", "washed-up", a "has-been". Those same old has-beens were lauded and complemented just weeks prior. If LIV never came into existence can you imagine anyone seeing Paul Casey or Charl Schwartzel and saying "yeah they're losers, way past their prime and will never contend"? Of course not, because they're good golfers and raise the level of competition of any PGA Tour event. Are those guys going to win majors? Probably not, but that doesn't mean they're washed up. Then you account for the fact that guys like DJ, Cam Smith, Reed, Koepka, etc. could still win majors, and the criticism becomes even more unfair. The arguments that guys like Reed haven't won in years fall flat…golf is an ebb and flow sport and there's no reason someone like him couldn't win again.
The format is perfectly fine. Different does not equal worse. A shotgun start increases the fairness of a tournament and negates the effect of weather and course conditions on tournament outcomes. 54 hole tournaments only seem weird because they're different, who cares? Is 72 holes any less arbitrary? No-cut formats don't matter either, you still either outplay everyone else and win or you don't…who cares if the guy in last place plays on Sunday?There is a lot of criticism of the golfers being greedy. Why is that of anyone's concern? Golf is their job and you choose to watch it as a form of entertainment. Golfers have no obligation to leave money on the table because it makes you happy. The PGA's full-year schedule is also unnecessarily onerous and it's no wonder guys like Cam Smith and Lee Westwood have said they want the time off to see their families and go home…who wouldn't? And most of the critics would gladly take $50MM more if they had the chance, they're just not good enough at golf for that to matter.
PGA events, including majors, are incredibly, incredibly, incredibly boring to watch on TV. Incessant commercials, following the same 7 golfers, and the lack of showing actual golf shots has turned my favorite sport into a complete bore. I had to turn off this year's US Open because I couldn't stand watching it. LIV broadcasts show nearly non-stop golf shots from ALL players, not just the usual Rahm, Spieth, Thomas, Zalatoris merry-go-round.My hope is that LIV becomes OWGR-recognized, the PGA bans go away, and LIV coexists with the other tours. Competition is healthy for the sport.
Love LIV and the hypocrisy is exposes. It is a better product than the PGA in terms of entertainment and focus on golf. If you look at Rory's career too, he abandoned his home tour (DP) to come play in the states and make more money. LIV has an international model and the PGA was lazy and focused on the USA, albeit they lesser tours in china, latin america, and canada. It's good for the international game of golf, bad for golf in the USA.
I certainly don't begrudge players going to LIV to make more money. A guy like Pat Perez has tripled or quadrupled what he made all of last year in a few events (before including any money he was paid up front to join). Who wouldn't want big, guaranteed money plus potential upside?
Guys like Smith, Johnson, and Koepka are already exempt into the majors so they are already into most of the tournaments that they would want to play anyway. So their schedule next year will be something like 4 majors plus 14 LIV events. For the US players, the advantage of playing less will be partially offset by having to travel farther. LIV will have more events in Europe, Asia and Australia. Given the strong presence of the PGA in the US this makes sense from a strategic perspective (tapping large, underserved markets). And this is potentially an advantage for the Australians. The professional golf scene in Australia has been weakened by the PGA Tour wrap around season (which I do not like). Before the wrap around, Australians could go play at home after the end of the PGA Tour season (late Sept through Dec). Now this doesn't really happen so I think they want to use LIV to play more in Australia and it probably helps that the LIV CEO is Australian.
I am a fan, but I am not going to watch more than 8-10 tournaments per year (being the majors plus a few marquee events that have a strong field, historically like the Players, Tour Championship, Genesis, Bay Hill). At this stage, LIV doesn't crack the top 10 events that I would want to watch. They have a number of interesting players, but I don't yet find LIV compelling to this level. I do think that having an alternative tour will make events that feature both LIV and PGA players more interesting (e.g. over time see how LIV and PGA players match up at the majors). This could be a really interesting dynamic over time and maybe the rivalry benefits both tours in that way.
Personally, I don't like the LIV format. I think the shotgun start takes drama out of the finish and it limits your field size. 54 holes is fine. I personally like to see some events that have cuts, especially at the majors, but this doesn't make sense with a small field. The team element doesn't do anything for me and the you can have one of your players over par and still win the team portion. If they want to have an F1 style team aspect with team owners, I think this is going to fail. It just isn't the same dynamic of racing or a team sport. Over time, if they want to make money they will have to generate revenue beyond just tickets/on site revenue. With the PGA Tour this is through commercials. I don't know how LIV will generate this revenue, if not via broadcast rights/commercials.
The major exemption is really good for the major you win, and pretty meh other than that.
Winning any major gets you a 5 year exemption to all the others; if you win the pga or masters you get a life exemption there, if you win the us open, you get a 10 year exemption there, and if you win the British open you’re exempt until you’re 60 years old.
Koepka last won a major at the 2019 pga so he’s exempt there for life, and he won the us open so he’s also exempt there until 2028.
But his 2019 win only gets him 5 years at Augusta and the British, and that’s either 2 or 3 years done at this point (not sure when the clock starts).
That’s a lot of potential major golf to give up, he essentially has to win another major in the next two or three years to keep up his eligibility at 2/4 major championships. Of course he could miss this window, win the pga or us open again, and get another 5 years but it’s pretty risky to say the least.
Part of me thinks he’s happy to have 4 majors and isn’t confident he’ll ever really recover from injury so just decided to take the money.
The biggest drawback to LIV is the effect it's had on the PGA commentators and their banging on every 10 minutes about how much prize money is on the line.
First, I'd say you need to break down LIV into two arguments; the actual product, and the people running it.
The actual product
-I don't want to say its not compelling, but what's really the solid upgrade from the PGA to LIV for fans? I haven't really heard anything from anyone that isn't a "gadget" fix. I'll give it to LIV for trying different stuff, teams might actually be the future, but 54 holes vs 72 or shotgun start vs formal don't move the needle enough. The money doesn't make it intriguing for the fans really.
People running it
Yea, how can anyone really come out and say they don't have a problem with the people running it. They're bad people, they're trying to use golf to make them look like less bad people.
I get golf is hard, especially professional golf. Its not like other sports where half your games are home, you're on the road every week and are lucky if one tournament a year is close to your hometown. Also, some guys get hot one year and then are done, and some guys are more famous than guys who are better players. At the end of the day, its entertainment, so if Pat Perez brings in more fans than say Patrick Cantlay, should that not be rewarded? But thats also what they sign up for on the PGA tour.
What really needs to happen if the marriage of good competition among players you care about. Take the LPGA, its good competition, but no one wants to watch. LIV is the opposite, its people you want to see, but its just basically practice rounds. PGA tour is the tour currently that puts those two together. PGA tour does need to make a bunch of changes, basically they rested on having Tiger Woods for years and didn't do anything to change, now they have to.
Also have to realize LIV isn't really trying to "fix" golf, they are just trying to leverage it for their own needs. Sports need to change with the times, some leagues have done this better than others, specifically the NFL and NBA with marketing, rules changes, outreach, dumbing down of the sport, and creating an atmosphere around the events. (For example, how many people would go to NFL games if tailgating was outlawed?) Right now golf as a whole needs to figure that out.
However, for professional golfers, their sponsorship money absolutely dwarfs their victories. According to a recent Google search, Tiger Woods has earned about $2 billion in sponsorship money since the start of his career. Yes, 26 years have passed, but still. Golfers are not indigent and do not require Saudi funding.
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