By Noah Kantner

Photo courtesy of LIV Golf via FMT.

In June 2021, the golf world exploded with the announcement of a new golf league, LIV Golf. There was finally a rival tour and competition for the PGA Tour, the world-renowned golf tour that has controlled the professional golf scene for decades. This groundbreaking news created a disturbance throughout the golf world. Questions immediately arose of how they could possibly take on the sports giant that is the PGA Tour, the main venue for professional golf since 1968. Players and fans would soon take sides and choose to back one of the two tours, and many controversies were inevitably on the horizon for this dichotomy in the complicated world of professional golf. Although the PGA Tour didn’t show immediate concern, LIV proved to be a potential threat for the PGA Tour and their players and fans. For the first time in decades, the future of golf was uncertain.

LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman. Photo credit: Seth Wenig/AP.

LIV Golf’s CEO is Greg Norman, Australian former professional golfer and two-time (British) Open winner. LIV Golf is backed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). According to ABC News, LIV Golf has come under fire for and controversy because of the involvement of Saudi Arabia. LIV Golf is just one of many investments that Saudi Arabia has made in professional sports, and they continue to invest and gain influence in many popular sports, such as soccer, boxing, and tennis. In a February article in The Athletic, Joey D’Urso wrote: “Saudi Arabia is attempting to rebuild its image and prepare for a world without oil — and sport is a key part of its strategy.” The country’s Public Investment Fund poured more than $2 billion into LIV Golf as a part of the plan for the country to diversify its economy beyond oil.

Journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was assassinated in Turkey in 2018 by agents of the Saudi government. Photo credit: Mohammed Al-Shaikh / AFP – Getty Images.

The Public Investment Fund (PIF) has been quickly increasing its investments in the world of sports. This has led to sports fans around the world becoming concerned with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s “sportswashing,” or using investments in sports to divert attention away from human rights issues and other controversies. As stated by ABC News, “According to Global SWF, an organization that tracks sovereign wealth funds, the fund has invested $13.5 billion into sports alone since its inception.” The fund has also been called out by human rights groups who bring to attention the Saudi government’s human rights violations, including its association with the 9/11 attacks and the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud. Saudi Arabia is also known for repressing women’s rights. Thomas Word (‘24) wrote about this in an April Match article about sportswashing: “Women have few freedoms, and every woman is legally required to have a male guardian. In fact, it wasn’t until the year 2015 that women gained the right to vote, and they couldn’t legally drive a car until 2018.”  All of these controversies associated with Saudi Arabia are why golf fans are skeptical of a golf tour that is primarily funded by the KSA. As stated by Khury Petersen-Smith in a 2023 article published by Foreign Policy in Focus, “Saudi Arabia’s LIV Golf League is ‘sportswashing’ at its worst.” 

LIV’s 13 teams. Image courtesy of Golf News.

LIV Golf is everything that the PGA Tour isn’t and an alternative to the antiquated feel of the PGA Tour. While the PGA Tour has always stayed true to the history and traditions of the sport, with their rules and regulations, LIV Tour wanted to be more contemporary and take on the more relaxed and casual side of golf. Some examples of those old rules that LIV decided to get rid of include requiring long pants while playing and silence during play, and they also changed the format of a tournament from four days to three, with shotgun starts. In golf, a shotgun start is when instead of every group waiting to tee off on hole 1 throughout the day, every group tees off on different holes, and they all finish on different holes. 

LIV also set up a team format with captains in an attempt to create a more leisurely and relaxed theme for fans, even for the people who aren’t as heavily invested in golf and its rich history. LIV’s slogan is “Golf, but Louder.” It truly is “Golf As You’ve Never Seen It.” LIV Golf allows their players to wear shorts, and they blast music throughout their tournaments. This style of golf is very appealing to the more casual golfer who cares more about the enjoyable environment than the storied past of the sport.

Trophies for the four golf Majors. Photo courtesy of Halpenny Golf & GolfWRX.

Similar to the way an NFL player’s greatness is determined by their accolades and amount of Super Bowls, what ultimately determines a golfer’s greatness is his success in the four major championships: the Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open, and The (British) Open. One of the immediate concerns for LIV was whether their players would still be able to compete in the four majors. According to Sports Illustrated’s Bob Harig, “Norman said it was his hope that eventually LIV players would be able to compete in PGA Tour events, just as was his goal back in the early 1990s.” When LIV golfers were granted permission to participate in these major tournaments, it led to some controversy between the two tours. Four times a year, LIV and PGA players would tee it up together. The first major that held a combination of LIV and PGA players was the 2023 Masters Tournament. People became heavily invested in whether there would be any drama between LIV and PGA players during the four times a year they would see each other. 

Dustin Johnson. Photo credit: Richard Heathcote via Golf Magazine.

While the majority of players remained loyal to the PGA Tour, some players would soon sign contracts with LIV,  guaranteeing them unheard of amounts of money for golf. One of the first star players to make the switch from PGA to LIV was two-time major champion Dustin Johnson, who signed up with LIV in 2022. This was a hefty loss for the PGA Tour and caught players and fans off guard. Former Masters champions Sergio Garcia and Bubba Watson also made the decision to switch tours. Arguably the more substantial loss for the PGA Tour was Phil Mickelson, six-time major champion and one of the greatest golfers of all time. Mickelson signed a four-year, $200 million contract in June 2022, which does not include future prize money that he wins based on his performance in tournaments. These signings gave LIV credibility and solidified them as a threat to the PGA Tour.

Phil Mickelson. Photo courtesy of ESPN.

The birth of LIV Golf also came with a profusion of legal challenges. As put by Chris Deubert in an article in Forbes, “The PGA Tour suspended its members who defected to LIV Golf. Those golfers, led by Phil Mickelson, filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour alleging that it had conspired with the DP World Tour, aka the European Tour, to prohibit them from playing on those tours.” Although a federal court denied the golfers’ request for a preliminary injunction against their suspensions, there were no efforts being made to repair relationships between the two tours and their players.

Cameron Smith. Photo credit Gregory Shamus/Getty Images.

Considering the unfathomably large contracts LIV’s players were guaranteed, money clearly talked, and as more players left to join LIV, tensions rose even more. LIV Golf was appearing to be a much larger threat than originally anticipated. Loyal PGA fans were upset at the fact that players were switching to LIV just to make more money. When Cameron Smith left to join LIV, a number of fans were disappointed by Smith’s decision. Smith had just won The 2022 Open Championship before he made the switch to LIV, and, to fans, it felt like he was giving away the chance to continue creating his legacy in golf just for the money. 

Will Zalatoris and Tiger Woods. Photo credit: George Walker IV/AP.

Even though there were many players that took those enormous contracts, there were still loyal players to the PGA Tour that cared more about winning majors and creating their legacy than getting that money. One example of the many players who rejected LIV’s offers is Will Zalatoris. Zalatoris turned down a $130 million dollar contract from LIV. Zalatoris was praised by PGA fans for his loyalty to the tour, similar to other PGA players who also said no. Another example is golf legend and 15-time major winner Tiger Woods, who turned down between $700 million and $800 million to join LIV Golf. The loyal players that turned down LIV would ultimately be rewarded by the PGA.

In June 2023, another shocking announcement occurred when LIV Golf and PGA Tour announced an agreement to merge business entities. This randomly timed announcement that left fans and even players with a slew of questions about what the future holds. Tom D’Angelo of the Palm Beach Post wrote in  Golfweek, “The PGA Tour, whose roots go back more than a century, and LIV Golf, the upstart league launched in June 2021 with tour antagonist Greg Norman as its face and financed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, forming an alliance?” The most unlikely of partnerships was being created. After two years of stealing players, insults about each other, and lawsuits, all legal proceedings were dropped, and the two rival tours joined forces, sort of. There was still much uncertainty about what this merger actually meant for the two tours.

Rory McIlroy. Photo courtesy of Reuters via FMT.

Rory McIlroy, one of the most popular names in golf and four-time major champion, plays a pivotal role in this rivalry. No golfer is nearly as outspoken as McIlroy has been about his negative feelings about LIV Golf. McIlroy stated in June 2023: “I hate LIV. I hope it goes away, and I would fully expect that it does.” According to Golf Monthly, in 2022, mere months after LIV’s initial event, 18 LIV players decided to play in the BMW PGA Championship. McIlroy said, “I hate what LIV is doing to the game of golf. I hate it, I really do. It’s going to be hard for me to stomach going to Wentworth and seeing 18 of them there. That just doesn’t sit right with me.” McIlroy felt betrayed by players that he had built relationships with over the years. McIlroy also said this about LIV Golf, per Bob Harig of Sports Illustrated: “My whole thing is I’m just disappointed to what it’s done to—not to the game of golf, the game of golf will be fine—but men’s professional golf and this sort of divide we have at the minute.” After hearing about the merger between PGA and LIV, McIlroy said, “LIV has nothing to do with this. It’s the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund that are basically partnering to create a new company.” So although questions were going unanswered about the details of the merger, and tensions have seemingly deflated, there was, and still is to this day, an obvious discontent between the two tours.

Scottie Scheffler. Photo courtesy of Getty Images/Golf Post.

Currently ranked number 1 in the world, two-time Masters champion Scottie Scheffler spoke about LIV in March at a press conference after The Players Championship, saying,  “If the fans are upset, then look at the guys that left. We had a tour, we were all together and the people that left are no longer here. At the end of the day, that’s where the splintering comes from.” According to ESPN’s Mark Schlabach, Scheffler is much less focused on the politics of the game and is just saying things how he sees them. Scheffler went on to say, “As far as our tour goes, like I said, we’re doing our best to create the best product for the fans, and that’s really where we’re at.” The Players Championship is considered the 5th major and a signature event on the PGA Tour. Fans were upset that they were not going to be able to watch those star players from LIV participate in the tournament.

Bryson DeChambeau. Photo credit: Andrew Redington/Getty Images.

Some other renowned names from the PGA Tour that made the switch to LIV over the past few years include Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau. Koepka is considered the best major performer in modern history, with five majors championship wins since 2017, and DeChambeau is a two-time major winner. These two players leaving gave LIV even more legitimacy, because now it was not just primarily older players who are out of their prime leaving; it was players who still had the ability to win major championships consistently.

Brooks Koepka. Photo courtesy AFP via FMT.

Koepka appeared on the  “BS w/ Jake Paul” podcast in October 2023, saying, “Look, I’ll be honest with you, I signed for the dough, I’m 100% behind that. I don’t know, tomorrow I could get in a car accident and never play golf again, but my family is taken care of. That was a big thing for me.” Koepka signed a four-year contract for $100 million with LIV. With some PGA players choosing to turn down offers from LIV for significant amounts of money, what it ultimately has come down to for players is how important their golf legacy is to them, compared to the possible payout. However, Koepka is most likely content with his decisions, considering he took the money and signed with LIV and also went on to win another major, adding on to his already impressive trophy room.

Image courtesy of GolfDigest and @doublebogey via instagram.

Recently, the long-awaited match of PGA vs. LIV was finally announced. McIlroy and Scheffler will face off against Koepka and DeChambeau in a match that golf fans have been eagerly waiting for. This PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf showdown is set to take place on Tuesday, December 17 at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas. It will be of interest to all golf fans to see if there are any altercations during the star-studded exhibition match.

The most shocking transition from the PGA to LIV came from the 2023 Masters champion, Jon Rahm. Rahm made the switch to LIV in December 2023 and was the most recent star to leave the PGA. Rahm was in the prime of his career as the reigning Masters champion, and he was consistently ranked in the top three before he left for LIV. Rahm signed a reported multiyear, $350 million deal in April, which gives him the largest LIV contract and makes him one of the highest paid athletes of all time. 

Jon Rahm. Photo credit: Michael Reaves/Getty Images.

Players like Rahm, DeChambeau, and Koepka joining LIV Golf proved that LIV is not just a place for golfers who are far out of their prime to go and make more money. What helps LIV appeal to the public even more is that their players are winning majors. Koepka won the 2023 PGA Championship, and DeChambeau recently won the 2024 U.S. Open. 

So although LIV does have a star-studded roster, it will continue to be a challenge for them to beat the amazing talent of the PGA. This brings up a concern for how LIV will fare in the future when the stars they have now get older. Will the younger generation of star players want to join LIV, or go the traditional and more popular route of the classic PGA Tour? 

Photo credit: Ben Jared/PGA TOUR.

Even though LIV has been successful, the PGA Tour continues to dominate television coverage and popularity. Brad Wakain wrote in Men’s Journal in February that, “The reason why the PGA Tour is a giant is because it’s been ingrained amongst golf fans for decades upon decades.” Even though LIV has star players and popular names, it will always be challenging to change the routine of golf fans primarily watching the PGA Tour.

LIV Golf’s arrival has evidently turned out to be beneficial for the players who chose to remain loyal to the PGA Tour, as prize pools have increased, and more attention and effort to maintaining player’s happiness has become a much larger effort within the PGA. This new rival tour has helped the PGA keep their standards high and make sure they are putting out the best product possible for their fans and supporters. McIlroy said in an interview with BBC Sport, “There’s no doubt that LIV’s come along and it’s benefited everyone that plays professional golf at a high level.”  Although there is no end in sight for the continued dominance of the PGA Tour when it comes to television coverage, ratings, and overall popularity, LIV and PGA both have their own place to thrive in professional golf.

Featured image courtesy of Brookline Public Relations.