For the few who took the time to venture to Doral last week their first images of the Infidel-funded rogue golf league included a woman walking on stilts decked out in a hot-pink outfit topped off by a flamingo hat. She was blowing bubbles. Not far away was some dude on a unicycle, juggled bowling pins. He missed catching one and as it hit the concrete, he nearly crashed.
And some wonder why LIV is often referred to as a “circus.”
If that wasn’t enough, The Donald was on site — glad-handing whoever wanted to be glad-handed by the controversial former President.
LIV’s first year is in the books, first half-year really, they’re going for 14 events in 2023 and although no one’s given the exact dates (what a surprise) it hopes to work around major championships and the larger events on the PGA Tour.
LIV’s on-site attendance numbers were nothing to brag about. U-Tube numbers, well, everyone knows how to get on U-Tube but those viewership numbers failed to reach six figures for just about every event. Numbers for the overseas events were even smaller.
As insignificant as it was, LIV isn’t going away.
The one fact of life, the truth about LIV, is that it did not attract attention with its 54-hole exhibitions. It was the talk around the world of golf via controversy, disruption, the rumor mill, politicization, throwing parties where obscene amounts of money were spent and paying fading stars enormous sums to leave the PGA Tour. The format and product itself was simply secondary.
Even LIV enthusiasts aren’t embracing this team stuff. About the only thing that came out of Miami is that Dustin Johnson’s team won and that D.J. himself was the dominant player.
Phil Mickelson was a non-factor.
So with the lack of interest in teams, well, that’s where LIV might run into real headwinds.
LIV’s now on a 90-day hiatus — time for Mickelson to get back to his real day job — gambling — time for the rest to pay much larger tax bills than they’re used to.
The toughest task now belongs to Atul Khosla, who’s really running the show as opposed to The Lamest Commissioner In All The Land (aka Greg Norman, aka The Great White Agitator). Somehow, Khosla has to persuade a television network that the Infidel-funded series isn’t toxic and that the Saudis are really the good guys. In the real world, LIV might actually have to fork out massive money to pay a network to allow the circus on its broadcasts.
“We have got to start commercializing the product,” Khosla said. “We have got to get on TV, we have to get corporate partners. These are milestones that we need to hit.”
About that “corporate partners” part. Good luck convincing Fortune 500 companies that sponsoring anything related to LIV is a really good idea. Most are public companies with boards of directors and shareholders. Given overall sentiment when it comes to human rights and the lack thereof in The Kingdom, well, yeah, good luck Mr. Khosla.
As far at the shot at real television, well LIV delivered a whopping 72,000 U-Tube views for its Sunday team finale. Wow. And while D.J. and his gang sprayed bottles of expensive champagne on whoever was in reach, good old Bryson, yeah Bryson DeChambeau, declared that LIV would have a television deal in place by February, 2023. Keep in mind that Bryson claims he sees UFOs in the night sky behind his back yard.
Bryson also said of those those corporate sponsorships: “We’re going to sell it to whoever wants it.”
Only problem there is that Byson’s “whoever” may end up being “no one.”
Yeah, it’s going to be fun trying to sell sponsors a place alongside “Lefty’s Losers.” Good name for Mickelson’s team.
LIV has also adopted the “everyone gets a trophy” mentality — there are grand prizes, first prizes, silver prizes, consolation prizes. Can you say “Little League?”
LIV defenders boast that these fields have great players — fact: they have three out of the world’s top 24 — 12 percent. Fact: LIV has six of the world’s top 40 — a whopping 15 percent.
The one “jewel” in the LIV crown for the past season was the successful courting of Cam Smith, the 2022 Open champion.
D.J.’s on his final approach to retirement. Brooks Koepka is bound for knee replacement surgery. Sergio Garcia has an knee surgery scheduled. Matt Wolff still has no confidence. Phil Mickelson’s only useful purpose is to spout what the Saudis want him to say, even though he once terms them “scary motherfuckers!”
So LIV isn’t going away any time soon.
Give LIV a foot and its wants a mile. It also wants things to move the way it wants them to move — hence it’s ongoing complaints about the OWGR process.
Yes, large sums of tainted money (stolen from The Kingdom’s public employees) can buy you some players and it can buy you a tour of sorts.
Now can it buy a television deal?
And what potential “corporate sponsors” want to ride this runaway train?
Welcome to LIV Golf, 2023.
13 Comments
baxter cepeda
Well some things are happening here already.
I just want to say I’m very intrigued by LIv buying the time and controlling the coverage.
You hear some nonsense by people like rich been whom admittedly aren’t watching that Liv is a bad coverage but fans whom are actually living it are loving it.
Btw Same for fans on site, which was a significant crowd from what I saw at doral.
Let’s see how many people we see at mayakoba after 3 years of no fans. I think we will notice little difference.
I heard at times the numbers Sunday for LIv were 7o thousand or so. I don’t know how it works but at some point Sunday I minimized the screen to see how many people were watching and the number I saw was north of 800,000. Again. I don’t know.
Yes LIv are actually using circus acts which makes the immature name calling easy. But who cares? They are creating an event. LIv can also be called a rock concert. Or a bar. Call it what you want. And use whatever statistics you want, but something’s clearly happening here and young fans are liking it. Even old fans. An 80 year old man on UTube was almost offended at the notion 8o year olds can’t find LIv. That being said the lack of tv does keep Liv relatively obscure to most Americans still.
For me the coverage is what I’ve been crying for for years from the pga tour. Don’t even get me started on the other tours. I’m wondering if the Asian tour coverage takes this Liv coverage style. That would help them. Imo.
I’m hopeful LIv can run with just a few sponsors. Almost like the US womens open is run with almost no commercials, but instead the prominent sponsor logos are displayed more. The masters basically does something similar.
Minimal commercials while remaining free has to be the future of golf coverage. I just watched the playlist. Young people watching LIv are almost going to expect no commercials as much as those kids back then quickly expected Free music; which remains true today.
And Do not forget about aramco if nothing else. It doesn’t hurt them to use this tour to sell that brand.
I don’t even wanna get into trump but with trumps backing that 50 percent of Americans whom let trump do all the thinking for them will not have a problem with LIv.
And then tons of people like me whom at this point give trump zero benefit of the doubt, will
Still accept LIv because we know basically every company, including all pga tour sponsors, regularly do business with the Saudis. The Saudis are Allies to the American government. The Saudis have sports investments throughout the world. Smart people know this. So while the source could be better, smart people are tired of the silly contradictions. Rich beem points it out. Hank Haney points it out. Many people are saying it. Even the majors are seeing it that way as they are officially opening the doors to LIv.
There’s a long way to go for LIv. But There’s definitely something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear. There’s a man with a gun over there telling me I got to beware…
What a crazy world we liv in.
Does everything really have to feel this connected?
Tom Edrington
Baxter: Keep loving LIV, you are in the small minority — will they be allowed by buy television time — I believe if they were, they’d have already been on. I didn’t read most of your post, I typically stop after two paragraphs. Time is money.
forky76
LIV defenders boast that these fields have great players — fact: they have three out of the world’s top 24 — 12 percent. Fact: LIV has six of the world’s top 40 — a whopping 15 percent.
This might be the dumbest thing you have ever written. We all know LIV players have been without rankings point for 6 months and are sliding down the increasingly irrelevant OWGR. Just because they have gone to play in a different league doesn’t mean they have all forgotten how to drive, chip & putt. They are still the same players they were when they left. The boardroom brawling between the PGA Tour and LIV has no impact on how Dustin Johnson hits a golf ball. Drawing statistics from the current OWGR rankings related to LIV players is completely misleading after being excluded from the system for 6 months. LIV has about 14 guys who have been permanent fixtures in the once relevant OWGR top 50 for the last 5 seasons – roughly 25%. An undisputable fact.
Tom Edrington
Thanks Forky, appreciate your continued reading of my dumb stuff.
baxter cepeda
Totally forky. A lot of calling out propaganda like this is going around.
This misleading with the owgr is at the top of the list of frustrating manipulations against LIv.
Not only are LIv players under ranked, the mostly good ol boy pga tour players are over ranked more then ever considering their tour is diminished and diminishing.
Pga tour wins still very much mean something, but the elephant in the room is they don’t mean as much as last year.
Tom Edrington
Total explanation for your attitudes toward loving-LIV and hating the PGA Tour — there is an enormous amount of sand in Hawaii so that you can always have your head buried in it…..some things can’t be cured.
baxter cepeda
I don’t hate. And as I’ve said repeatedly I love the pga tour. I just don’t like the way they are handling this new multi billion dollar venture that has entered the sport.
And yes I love LIv also. It’s great. Refreshing. Revolutionary.
Eventually the pga tour will be better than ever when they finally invite ALL the best players back and have them at ALL their legacy events. They will also have the top players sprinkle a few other pga tour events.
At the same time LIv will have a system to bring all of the best players of the last decade —the most high ranked guys, major winners, major champs, top guys from all the tours— all competing together around the world. And as a way to bring non golfers into the sport it will be a concert. A Circus. And a golf tournament.
And of course the majors will always be the majors. There is no further editing needed there. If the diminished players championship due to LIv suspensions has taught us anything it is that there really are only 4. So that won’t change.
But Things change. And golf is FINALLY changing for the better.
Tom Edrington
I think you’re fantasizing about that “invite ALL” claim. You spew nasty stuff about the Tour and basically want its commissioner banished while The Lamest Commissioner In All The Land lies to his players, starts rumors and lies and is basically in it for himself — if you paid attention to what those who know him best said about him, you would realize that Greg is in it for Greg and his long-time grudge against the PGA Tour, which, by the way, made him incredibly wealthy. At least half of the LIV players are ranked so low that they would drag down the fields if LIV actually got rankings points. And here’s a few tidbits for you that perhaps we’ll point out in the future: LIV doesn’t drug test (nice for DJ), LIV doesn’t check for conforming equipment and there are already whispers that LIV is pretty lax with the rules of golf (good for Patrick Reed). I don’t believe DJ wants to return to the Tour, he’s set to retire at the end of his LIV contract, which has him for the upcoming season and two more. Bryson doesn’t like PGA Tour officials because they made him conform to the rules, same for Reed. Brooks Koepka’s on a pitch count, heading toward knee replacement surgery. Cam Smith wants to live in Australia, near his people and now he’s made enough money to retire. He doesn’t care that much for the PGA Tour or he wouldn’t have left.
forky76
Anyone who thinks Billy Horshel and Keegan Bradley are better players than Dustin Johnson has their head in the sand.
Tom Edrington
And where, pray tell, has that been written by your Editor-In-Chief? — it hasn’t. Tread carefully, Forky, making claims like that is a pure and simple fabrication.
forky76
You have been very vocal about LIV players OWGR rankings. Every chance you get you tell us about how they only have a handful of top players. Since these OWGR rankings seem so important to you, Billy Horschel is ranked 16, Keegan Bradley 24 & Dustin Johnson 31. Just drawing a logical conclusion. Or do you actually agree with me that the OWGR are becoming increasingly irrelevant?
Tom Edrington
I DO NOT AGREE — when the defectors bolted for the LIV, they knew they would not get world ranking points although Greg Norman lied to them; LIV tried the sneaky end run and Norman boasted to the media that the LIV Saudi circu would get ranking points; DJ is set to retire in three years, Brooks is heading toward knee replacement surgery, Talor Gooch played so badly that DJ kicked him off the team. Kevin Na as a non-factor, Pat Perez is full of hot air and even said he is no longer capable of competing on the PGA Tour, as are others. Also consider that the LIV does not drug test, does not test or screen for conforming equipment and a lot of observers of the circus are whispering that LIV is pretty laissez-faire when it comes to the rules of golf…..the no drug test is great for DJ, the non-checks for conforming equipment is right up Bryson’s alley and lax enforcement of the rules is just what Patrick Reed dialed up. So NO, the OWGR are NOT irrelevant because LIV being a 54-hole exhibition, is not a “relevant” tour. But stop claiming I wrote things that I DID NOT WRITE — that’s not a good look for you, Forky.
baxter cepeda
Sorry Forky. I tried to support your points. But they didn’t make the cut. See ya.