The new professional golf tour making waves is called LIV Golf, and it has dramatically reshaped the sport. This tour introduced a completely new format, attracted some of the game's biggest stars, and sparked a fierce rivalry with the established PGA Tour. In this guide, we'll break down exactly what LIV Golf is, how it works, who is playing, and what its arrival means for the future of professional golf.
At its heart, LIV Golf is a new professional golf tour financially backed by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund. The name "LIV" is the Roman numeral for 54, a number that is foundational to the tour’s identity. Every LIV event is a 54-hole tournament (three rounds of 18 holes), a departure from the traditional 72-hole format of PGA Tour events. Furthermore, a score of 54 represents a perfect round in golf - making a birdie on every hole of a par-72 course.
Launched in 2022, the tour’s motto is "Golf, But Louder." This phrase captures its mission to present the sport in a more modern, fast-paced, and fan-centric way. It aims to be shorter, more exciting, and more accessible than what many perceive as a slow and traditional sport. This is achieved through shotgun starts, a team competition that runs alongside the individual one, and a festival-like atmosphere at events with live music.
Understanding the distinctions between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour is essential to grasping the current landscape of professional golf. The differences are not just cosmetic, they fundamentally alter how the game is played, how players are compensated, and how fans experience events. As a coach, I see these changes impacting player strategy and mindset in significant ways.
Perhaps the most noticeable difference is the shotgun start. In a traditional golf tournament, players tee off in pairs or threesomes from the first and tenth tees throughout the morning and afternoon. This means a full day of action, but it can be difficult for viewers to follow everyone.
In a LIV event, all 48 players in the field start their round at the same time, but on different holes. This compresses the action into a defined, roughly four-and-a-half-hour window. It guarantees that every star player is on the course at once, making it easier for fans on-site and watching at home to see their favorites.
The other major innovation is the team component. The 48 players are divided into 12 teams of four. These teams have captains, names, and logos (like the 4Aces GC, Crushers GC, or RangeGoats GC). During rounds, the best scores from the team members count toward a separate team leaderboard. This adds another layer of drama and gives players something else to compete for - loyalty to a team and a shared goal. From a coaching perspective, this introduces a fascinating dynamic. It reduces the intense isolation of individual professional golf, providing a support system and adding pressure not to let your teammates down.
Every regular-season LIV Golf event is played over 54 holes with no cut. On the PGA Tour, a cut is made after 36 holes, sending roughly half the field home for the weekend without a paycheck. The no-cut format in LIV Golf guarantees that every player competes for all three days and earns prize money. This provides financial security that is unheard of on other tours.
The shorter 54-hole format also contributes to LIV's mission of being faster. For players, it means less wear and tear over a season, which is one of the reasons many older veterans were attracted to the tour. Strategically, a 54-hole sprint changes things. There's less time to recover from a bad round, placing immense pressure on getting off to a hot start.
LIV events aim for a different vibe. Players are allowed to wear shorts, which has long been forbidden on the PGA Tour. Music is played on the course and during play at designated areas, making events feel more like an outdoor festival than a buttoned-down championship. The overall product is engineered to be energetic and less bound by tradition, in an effort to appeal to a younger and broader audience who might not have connected with golf before.
A new tour is only as good as its players, and LIV Golf has succeeded in attracting some of the biggest names in the sport, including multiple major champions. The promise of enormous guaranteed contracts, on top of the hefty prize purses, proved to be a powerful lure.
Some of the most prominent players to join LIV Golf include:
Other notables include Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Patrick Reed, and Bubba Watson. This collection of talent ensured that LIV events were not just exhibitions but highly-competitive tournaments.
The emergence of LIV Golf has not been smooth. It created a deep and often bitter power struggle within a sport that was stable for decades. There are two primary sources of contention that have defined this new era.
The most significant point of controversy is the financial backing from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF). Critics have accused the tour of being an exercise in "sportswashing" - an attempt to use a high-profile sporting event to distract from the country's human rights record. Players who joined faced intense scrutiny and were accused of overlooking these issues for financial gain. Prominent players who stayed with the PGA Tour, like Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, were outspoken critics in the early days.
The PGA Tour responded to the defections by suspending any member who played in a LIV event. This drew a hard line and split the world of men's professional golf in two. For the first time, fans couldn’t see all the best players in the world compete against each other outside of the four major championships.
Further complicating matters is the issue of Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points. The OWGR is the system that ranks all pro golfers and is a primary pathway for qualifying for the four majors. LIV Golf's application to receive OWGR points was ultimately rejected, as its format (no cut, 48-player fields, team influence) did not meet the established criteria. Without access to points, LIV players began to slide down the world rankings, threatening their future eligibility for majors, even for previous champions whose exemptions may eventually run out.
In mid-2023, the golf world was stunned by the announcement of a "framework agreement" between the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour, and the PIF to merge their commercial interests. However, the details of what this means for the future - and whether the tours will eventually combine or coexist - remain up in the air, leaving players and fans in a state of uncertainty.
To put it simply, LIV Golf is the new tour that has completely disrupted the status quo in men's professional golf with its 54-hole, no-cut, team-based format. Funded by Saudi Arabia's PIF, it has lured top players with giant paydays and presented a faster, more festival-like product for fans, creating an ongoing rivalry with the PGA Tour.
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