Is LIV Golf here to stay? We’ll see
There is a scene at the end of the iconic film, Charlie Wilson’s War, where the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman, who plays a CIA officer called Gust Avrakotos, is issuing Tom Hanks, who plays a congressman called Charlie Wilson, a chilling warning about leaving Afghanistan to fend for itself after the United States helped drive the Soviets out of the Central Asian country in 1989.
To better make his point to Hanks, who feels the job in Afghanistan is done, Hoffman’s character decides to retell the story of a Zen master and a young man. In this captivating speech, the story centers around this young man getting a horse for his birthday to which everyone in his village proclaims how wonderful a development it is. The Zen master, as Hoffman brilliantly puts it, then says, “we’ll see.”
Hoffman continues with the story and says the man falls off his horse sometime later and breaks his leg. At this point, the villagers all declare in unison how unlucky he was to suffer this fate. Again, the Zen master says, “we’ll see.”
Over the following months, the man’s village goes to war but he can’t go because his leg is broken, all the villagers then remark on how wonderful it is for him. You probably know where this is going by now as the Zen master says, “we’ll see.”
The message behind Hoffman’s spellbinding cautionary fable centers on the perils of coming to quick and absolute conclusions about something.
At this stage, you might, understandably, be scratching your head as far as the connection that this scene has with LIV Golf.
Or, if you have been pondering with great detail whether LIV’s place in the sporting world is a good or bad thing, you may know exactly where this is headed.
The comparison lies in the fact that no other emerging sporting league in the world has ever managed to draw as much unified condemnation as LIV Golf has since its inception in 2022. In short, the reaction to LIV’s arrival has been strong and unanimous with observers sure that it will destroy golf as we know it.
The detracting voices certainly outnumber the ones in support of LIV and there is now a loud narrative being parroted by the large majority of golf fans that focuses on the damage that the newly launched tournament is doing to the sport’s values.
The question here is: Is LIV Golf the destructive force that people say it is? Are their proposed plans credible and dare we say it, might they even be the breath of fresh air that golf needs?
A closer look at the recently announced format in 2023 may help provide some answers on the tour’s authenticity.
The new format
To advertise LIV’s upcoming schedule in 2023, their social media team asked their marquee players to all help out by saying a few lines each in an effort to put together a slick promotional video. In this clip, the camera pans from the likes of Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, and Phil Mickelson as they and many other contracted LIV players do their best to simplify the new format that the league will be adopting.
Over the two-minute video, viewers hear how the individual and team winners will be crowned, as well as how the new transfer and relegation system might work.
It is terminology that is normally associated with the English Premier League but admittedly, for the first time, LIV has seemingly managed to create a sense of jeopardy in its product, instead of lavishly rewarding everyone simply for turning up.
Essentially, the main complaint has been that the league does not offer any incentive as players are awarded lucrative checks regardless of how well they have performed – thus killing the integrity of the genuine competition. Further evidence of this can be found during the season opener at Mayakoba in Mexico where last placed Sihwan Kim still managed to walk away with $100k despite shooting 23 over par.
But with the changes to the 2023 series, these riches may be taken away from players now that there is a relegation system in place. Effectively, anyone who finishes in positions 45-48 on the money list will lose their playing rights on the LIV Tour.
So while the players will still be well compensated for taking part, there is now the chance to see them ruthlessly cast out from this eye-wateringly rich league if they fail to play well enough over the course of a season. You could say that it’s a vital improvement to LIV’s offerings and one that will certainly help the organization grow. We’ll see.
Smoke and mirrors
The problem here is that in this promo video, the language used around this all-new relegation system is far from convincing. At least, there is too much reliance on the word ‘could’ when it comes to who may be eventually demoted and who could then be promoted from their International Series which serves as a feeder tour. The reason for LIV’s non-committal stance on this is simple: all their big stars are contracted players and won’t be going anywhere even if they finish dead last on the money list at the end of the season.
So again, there is a safety net below their marquee stars that on closer inspection, nullifies the risks that come with playing badly. The inescapable truth is that for professional sports to properly entertain, there need to be consequences associated with playing poorly. It is with this in mind that you could determine that these changes are merely a smoke screen and will hurt LIV’s chances of being taken seriously. We’ll see.
LIV goes around the ‘world’
One of the other unique selling points of LIV is that they will be hosting events in different countries which is something that the PGA Tour doesn’t do. In the aforementioned advertisement video, it is Mickelson who is tasked with telling fans that this is what LIV will do with Lefty claiming that tournaments will be played “around the world.”
It stands to reason that the more professional golf is played around the globe, the better chance there is of appealing to a new audience and growing the game. We’ll see.
LIV will spend the majority of its time in the US
Again, this is quite misleading as the 14 tournament schedule only features seven different countries, with the bulk of events taking place in the USA.
Indeed, there are stop-offs in Tucson, Orlando, Tulsa, Washington, Greenbrier, Chicago, Miami, and importantly for New York residents, Bedminster which is only a short drive from the Big Apple. As far as matters go closer to home, this will naturally appeal to golf fans in New York who want to see LIV’s superstar golfers in the flesh.
That is certainly one positive of LIV’s new format given that fans won’t be disappointed to discover a lackluster field after they’ve bought tickets as their contracts dictate that they have to appear at all of these events. However, for any hopefuls looking to spend time at Bedminster to watch the action, it is worth keeping in mind that injuries do naturally exempt players from taking part. For keen locals in the Empire State intent on going to watch live, one way to keep track of the list of players headed to Bedminster is to monitor the latest LIV Golf betting markets which will list every competing player’s winning odds in the build-up to the event.
Of course, this is easily done as online sports betting has been legalized in the state of New York since 2022. At the time, DraftKings, FanDuel, Caesars, and BetRivers were the first bookmakers to go live but since then, a host of new operators have been granted licenses. In other words, there will be no shortage of New York bookmakers providing pre-tee-off odds on the showdown in Bedminster which will give fans a better idea of who to expect to see when the LIV roadshow comes to town.
Judging by last year’s event in Bedminster, there was genuine excitement on the ground when this tournament was played but in general, LIV’s overall format is designed in a way that if anything, is likely to only grow the game in America and not further afield given the top-heavy geographical schedule. In this sense, it is reasonable to assume that LIV won’t do any more to stir up international interest in golf than the PGA Tour currently does. We’ll see.
Innovation should be commended, however uncomfortable it may feel
Admittedly, there do seem to be some easily identifiable contradictions in LIV’s new vision of what the sport might look but they are at least trying to take golf into the 21st century after decades of inaction by the game’s previous rule makers. Will this innovation lead to the LIV Golf eventually becoming the most popular tour in the world? We’ll see.