I normally choose to ignore what is happening on the LIV Golf tour but with the whole sport in a state of disruption it might be time to see if its demise is coming.

This week in New York LIV Golf held a presentation for advertising agencies and global brands to re-introduce their product – Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smith and Bryson DeChambeau attended. The message was “we’re still alive and making plans for the future”

Saudi Public Investment Fund’s Yasser Al-Rummayan is known to like the team concept. He met with LIV players at their Valderrama tournament a few weeks ago and was reassuring about their future. 

However, despite a $2 billion investment, LIV has continued with no corporate signage, no Fortune 500 companies interested in it and until this year no TV partner. The demographics for the people who attend LIV tournaments is interesting. 60% are under 45 years, 30% have never attended a tournament before. This isn’t really surprising as in year one many of the people who attended were on free passes, and were coming along for the free music and a cheap day out as much as anything.

This year’s alliance with CW network has not been successful. Their TV ratings are no longer made public but earlier this year were under 300,000 viewers on the final day of their 54 hole tournaments. This is compared to an average 2 million viewers for a PGA Tour event. They have streamed on YouTube, DAZN and the LIV golf app.

Since the announcement of the merger of the three tours seven weeks ago LIV CEO Greg Norman has said little publicly. The basic framework document of the “NewCo” the new organiation which the merged tours will sit under says that LIV will continue and complete its 2023 schedule, but there’s nothing more beyond that. There are no assurances that LIV will continue as it is, and the PGA Tour have a taskforce working on how LIV players can be reintegrated into the tour. 

This asks the question, what will happen to Greg? It is looking as though he may be ousted immediately. Ron Price the COO of the PGA Tour has said “it would make no sense to bring in that kind of executive to manage a series of fourteen 54 hole events”.

With its team competition, shotgun starts, 54 hole events, smaller fields and no cut tournaments it is distinctive, and the PGA Tour has adjusted to introduce elevated events with smaller fields, no cuts and guaranteed purses. 

But with the PGA Tour working to welcome any interested LIV players back into the fold next year it looks as though the future beyond this season looks very uncertain. 

I will be glad not to have to think about it, I’ll be glad when this mess is all over.