LIV Golf Disruption

“If you’re not a disruptor, you will be disrupted.” - John Chalmers

The famous PGA Tour is a conservative organisation built upon tradition and legend. LIV

Golf is the great disruptor forging its own identity. We live in a world of disruption. Advances in technology is often the cause of disruption in every area of human endeavour. For professional golf the disruptor is not technology, it is capital. Capital provided by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Saudi Public Investment Fund, PIF. This fund, PIF, is extremely wealthy, the type of wealth that makes real impacts not only in sport but in all areas of any economy.

PIF representative Yasir Al-Rumayyan alongside Greg Norman manage LIV Golf. Norman has made earlier attempts to impact the PGA Tour, without success. His partnership with LIV Golf changed all that. The impact on traditional powerhouse of golf, the PGA Tour, has been the most disruptive of the investments PIF has made in any sporting code.

LIV Golf have attracted many of the top golfers on the planet into their stable, including

Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brookes Koepka, John Rahm, and Phil Mickelson.

PIF have offered hundreds of millions of dollars to each top player, to join LIV Golf. Less

reputable names have been offered sums in the tens of millions of dollars. Currently, as at 2024, 54 players have contracts with LIV. Each season two or three players are rotated out of the league and replaced by others.

Golf stars Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have both attempted to find a way for LIV Golf and the PGA Tour to co-exist in a way that the best players from both tours can participate. Two years after LIV Golf launched back in June 2022, the tours have not made noteworthy progress in developing a closer relationship.

Issues keeping LIV Golf, and the PGA Tour apart are unlikely to be resolved soon. LIV

tournaments are played over 54 holes in 3days with no cut. PGA Tournaments are 72 holes over 4days with a maximum field of 156. After two days the PGA field is cut to 70 players.

Only the 70 players remaining in the field receive a financial incentive. In LIV everyone

receives payment individually, $4 million for the winner, $50 thousand for last. If you are part of a team, the winning team receives $3 million to split between the four members. Except for the majors, which are independent of the PGA Tour, there is no pathway for players to participate in either tour. A 54-hole tournament under current rules does not generate ranking points for LIV golfers. Players who remained loyal to the PGA Tour seek financial recompense for their commitment, should the tours overcome their differences.

The golfing world, including myself, hopes there is sufficient movement between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour, where the top players by ranking points can compete in the same tournament. The disruption of professional golf by big capital fund, PIF, between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour, is unlikely to be resolved soon. The issues are insurmountable for the time being.