I think you might recall there was a bit of a hullabaloo when LIV Golf announced itself to the world last year.
Most of the noise came from the clear and obvious disgruntlement emanating from the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. Whether they consider it to be true or not, both tours’ reactions made it appear that LIV was a threat to their pre-eminence.
This was giving the Saudi experiment far too much credit. Both would have lost nothing had they treated LIV the same way they treat each other. In fact the ‘martyring’ of the new kids on the block provided them with an oxygen of publicity that practically sustained it through its first year.
LIV Golf will never be significant. It doesn’t matter who it signs up, the fundamentals of the tour are wrong and this is the clearest oversight the people behind LIV have not given enough thought to.
I appreciate the Saudis are almost certainly doing this for non-sporting/normal reasons. They definitely know this is not a money-making opportunity while an exercise in trying to make oneself look in step with the rest of the world is never a bad idea. Especially when you have endured a constant stream of beheading stories.
However, if that is the cash-rich kingdom’s only concern, it will get more bang for its buck from its investment in Newcastle United compared to 48 professional golfers playing in 14 tournaments. In fact it won’t even be close.
Fundamentally LIV is one long exhibition match.
The reason we love watching sport is that classic sense of drama and the jeopardy that comes with it.
On proper tours, those who miss the cut receive nothing. There are also so many great storylines around players’ fortunes rising and falling.
And it is not just at the very top. Sometimes there are even great tales to be told regarding players keeping their card for another year.
https://youtu.be/__rL8d79YRE
It’s the same reason football fans watched on aghast as the leading European clubs attempted to create a closed shop Super League.
Who cares if the price of failure is success?
That’s not why we love watching sport.
No sporting enterprise rewards failure like LIV Golf. At least in the closed shop of American team sports there is still a huge deal riding on the outcome of results.
Another huge problem for LIV Golf is it has put too much store by the ‘attraction’ of certain players. On TV especially, in this era of nondescript power golf, there just isn’t any attraction to watching Brooks Koepka, Bubba Watson and Dustin Johnson et al. We’ve seen it all before.
Related: Former Ryder Cup star Thomas Pieters joins LIV Golf for 2023 season
There is a modicum of freak value around Bryson DeChambeau but if it is power you want then watching Kyle Berkshire on YouTube makes for more compelling viewing.
LIV Golf has nothing going for it other than when its players turn up at non LIV events.
So I say let the ‘rebels’ back in. Give them the ranking points they deserve and when the Saudis have burned through a couple of billion they will pull the plug. It won’t take long.
