LIV Golf has already won
The LIV Golf tour descended upon Miami this weekend for the final tournament of its inaugural season, and a harsh reality must settle in for golf fans.
On Sunday, The Four Aces took home the LIV Team Championship that lacked drama and interest. Only 40,000 viewers tuned in to the final round on YouTube according to an article on AwfulAnnouncing.com, and the conversation over the next six months will focus on whether LIV golfers will be able to compete in The Masters.
But will we talk about Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist ambushed and murdered by Saudi Arabian assassins? Are we still asking the golfers about Saudi Arabia’s involvement with 9/11? Is the country’s horrific treatment of women on the minds of golf fans?
Therein lies the harsh reality. The Saudi-backed tour was a success in its first season, and is primed for an even better campaign in 2023.
Even just having to ask these questions shows ‘Sports Washing’ is winning, and LIV Golf is accomplishing its original purpose, making sure the discourse around Saudi Arabia focuses on anything outside of its moral compass.
If we rewind the clock to February, the biggest names in golf and journalists who cover the sport were celebrating a major victory.
Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau had just declared their fealty for the PGA Tour coming off Phil Mickelson’s ‘scary m—–f—s’ comment about the Saudi Arabian government, and PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monohan was touting legacy as the factor tipping the scales away from LIV Golf. A month later, LIV announced its first slate of eight events for 2022, but there were still zero golfers signed on to the new league.
Fourteen of the top-50 players in the world at the end of the 2021 calendar year defected from the PGA Tour, including Johnson and DeChambeau. All eight tournaments went off without a hitch, and despite some blatant lies from the broadcast team, LIV produced a quality TV product thanks to zero commercials.
The shotgun starts and 54-hole tournaments will anger golf purists, and it’s hard to argue for LIV golf’s hokey-pokey format, but the lack of advertisements is a huge win. Watching a golf tournament and actually seeing golf shots without interruption is a foreign concept for PGA Tour fans, but LIV golf has the benefit of unlimited wealth from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Why sell advertising slots when cash is the least of your concerns?
And in LIV Golf’s recent additions, the PGA Tour defections are becoming more likable. DeChambeau’s childish antics and Patrick Reed’s history fudging the rules make them easy villains, but some young heroes are joining them.
Harold Varner and Joaquin Nieman joined the Saudi league in August, and both were developing huge fan bases for a PGA Tour that yearns for more diverse stars. Varner in particular was winning hearts across the world as the second African-American to reach the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods’ arrival in 1996.
But LIV Golf’s biggest coup came in the form of Cameron Smith. With his mullet flowing in the St. Andrews wind, Smith used his mix of grace and grind to outlast Rory McIlroy and win the 2022 Open Championship. He arguably accomplished more in this past year than any other golfer, and the Australian star is LIV’s biggest asset.
LIV’s biggest failures have come from the tour’s inability to secure OWGR points for its players. Money can’t buy these points, and their arguments to get these rankings have been silly, but having the argument at all is a distraction.
LIV Golf is here to stay. The 2023 season will be bigger, more structured and probably capitalize on the team golf interest that has been one of the lone bright spots about the actual golf. Johnson made $35.6 million in his first LIV season, nearly half of what he earned in 15 seasons on the PGA Tour.
That kind of money is powerful, and the power might never completely destroy the PGA Tour or make LIV the preeminent product in the world. But it can distract us from the original fight against the Saudi-backed golf league.
And because of that, LIV has already won.
