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Sunday, February 16, 2025

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LIV’s subsequent part emerges – International Golf Submit


Michael Wade, Icon Sportswire

Perhaps it’s an excessive amount of to say that LIV Golf is having fun with a second however, because the defiant league begins its fourth season, it seems to have discovered new footing because it prices into regardless of the future holds.

The bitter emotions LIV Golf and its former chief Greg Norman engendered because it muscled its manner into golf’s ecosystem have steadily dulled into, for a lot of, a grudging acceptance of the sport’s new-look panorama.

If and when Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund finalizes an settlement with the PGA Tour, it’s prone to be extra funding oriented than instantly reuniting. In different phrases, should you’re hoping for LIV Golf to vanish, don’t maintain your breath.

That’s to not say there received’t be any cross-pollination between the PGA Tour and LIV gamers ought to a deal be struck, however LIV isn’t prone to go away.

LIV Golf has a brand new 28,000-square-foot workplace in New York’s stylish Hudson Yards neighborhood, Norman has been changed by Scott O’Neil, who brings with him an intensive background in sports activities enterprise, and there’s a tv take care of Fox Sports activities that may solely assist broaden the league’s publicity, a spot the place LIV has did not develop any actual traction.

O’Neil’s arrival is a big step in LIV’s growth for 2 causes: What he brings as a profitable longtime government in skilled sports activities and since it means Norman has stepped apart.

Although he went about it with a machete, Norman gave LIV prompt presence throughout the sport. Regardless of the a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars} the PIF has been keen to throw at LIV, it was by no means going to be a simple promote.

LIV wanted Norman. It wanted somebody who wasn’t afraid of what others mentioned about him. It wanted somebody with a deep self-belief and a hearth inside. Norman introduced all of these and extra.

“He’s most likely one of many solely guys in golf who might have taken on that position,” Rory McIlroy, a frequent public critic of Norman, mentioned lately.

Greg Norman typically got here throughout extra as agitator than ambassador. Kevin C. Cox, Getty Pictures

At occasions, Norman got here throughout as an agitator greater than an envoy. He made guarantees he couldn’t preserve however he was promoting greater than a brand new league, he was promoting a brand new imaginative and prescient and it was unattainable to not consider a few of that was pushed by his acrimonious relationship with the PGA Tour, courting again three a long time.

Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Cam Smith and others got here for the cash however Norman helped lead them there.

“With LIV Golf, we modified the sport perpetually,” Norman mentioned in an announcement confirming his departure, although he’ll stay with LIV in an as but unannounced position.

He’s not fully incorrect.

What LIV has modified is how the sport is packaged, although, primarily based on its first three years, the general public isn’t shopping for a lot of what LIV is promoting.

LIV, and maybe to a lesser extent the TGL, has overestimated the curiosity in group golf competitors. It’s fascinating in a one-off setting, not as an everyday menu merchandise. Followers care which facet wins the Ryder Cup. It’s uncertain the plenty will ever care what number of LIV occasions the 4Aces win.

With O’Neil’s arrival and the Fox Sports activities deal, LIV is rising into its subsequent part. O’Neil’s encouraging message resonated with staff and there’s a sense throughout the group that there’s constructive momentum as the primary occasion of the 2025 season – in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – is simply two weeks away.

In an interview with The Occasions of London, O’Neil (who most lately labored as CEO for England-based Merlin Entertainments) gave the impression of a person who believes the panorama is shifting.

“All of us need the identical factor and I’m actually assured that clearer heads will prevail. I’ve a superb feeling that the headwinds LIV has seen during the last two and a half years are in a short time going to show to tailwinds,” O’Neil mentioned.

“LIV Golf is getting larger and bolder, and this (Fox Sports activities) relationship alerts the following part of development as our league joins the corporate of the nation’s premier sports activities leagues and conferences.” – Scott O’Neil

Touchdown the Fox Sports activities deal is an enormous step although the main points stay fuzzy. It’s unclear if Fox Sports activities can pay a rights charge to LIV or if there’s one other association. LIV, which was beforehand broadcast on the CW Community, will proceed to provide the published expertise and gear for the telecasts.

It’s additionally unclear which LIV occasions will air the place. All three rounds of the 14 occasions will air on one in every of Fox’s community channels or its app this yr, although a supply mentioned it might be 2026 earlier than LIV will get broader publicity on the principle Fox Sports activities channel because of earlier community commitments.

“LIV Golf is getting larger and bolder, and this relationship alerts the following part of development as our league joins the corporate of the nation’s premier sports activities leagues and conferences,” O’Neil mentioned in an announcement asserting the multiyear deal.

Contemplating the dismal scores LIV attracted on the CW Community, attracting fewer than 100,000 viewers for Jon Rahm’s victory within the LIV particular person championship in September, the transfer to Fox ought to guarantee a bigger viewers.

Within the nonetheless unfolding story of LIV Golf, it feels as if a brand new chapter is starting.

© 2025 International Golf Submit LLC



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