\n<\/p>\n
DORAL, Fla. \u2014 After the paragliders landed, unfurling flags for Aces GC and Crushers GC, the first-tee emcee set the stage. LIV Golf\u2019s team championship was upon us. The entire season had come down to this, he said. Time to get hyped. Three women ran along the rope line, waving T-shirts in the air, the universal sign to make noise. In unison, amid the thumping beat of Khwezi\u2019s \u201cCyberpunk 2020,\u201d the emcee got things started.<\/p>\n
\u201cMiami, get ready to party,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is golf, but louder.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, Talor Gooch, Charles Howell III, Mito Pereira and Patrick Reed teed off one by one to some clapping, some whooping. LIV\u2019s finale \u2014 12 teams playing for a $50 million season-ending purse \u2014 was underway, with a cool $14 million to the four-man winning team.<\/p>\n
Not long ago, it was thought that this \u2014 the 2023 team championship at Trump Doral outside Miami \u2014 might serve as LIV\u2019s final resting place. In early June, following the PGA Tour\u2019s formal agreement<\/a> to partner with the near-$700 billion Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, voices were quick to promote the presumptive demise of the tour\u2019s chief rival.<\/p>\n The deal created a for-profit company combining the commercial interests of the PGA Tour<\/a> and DP World Tour behind a large cash investment from the PIF. Just as importantly, it forged a ceasefire ending the expensive, prying litigation that neither side wanted. LIV, it seemed, was expendable in the deal. A person involved with the negotiation told The Athletic<\/em> in June: \u201cI don\u2019t know that it\u2019s going to exist. Because the PIF is not running it. Greg Norman certainly isn\u2019t running it. He\u2019s out of a job. Performance 54 isn\u2019t running it. It\u2019s Jay (Monahan). Like, that\u2019s the deal.\u201d<\/p>\n It was, until it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Four and a half months later, it appears the framework agreement between the tour and the PIF is dead, dying, or, at best, will need to be extended past a Dec. 31 deadline for completion. The PGA Tour is in talks with outside investors, including Endeavor, the entertainment and media agency that owns the UFC and WWE, and other private entities. Publicly, officials from both the tour and the PIF will only say they\u2019re still operating in good faith and remain committed to the framework agreement. Privately, voices on both sides cite heavy doubts building by the day. All indications say the seismic shifts in the future of professional golf are far from settled.<\/p>\n Where does that leave LIV? Golf\u2019s great disruptor is now 22 events into its existence. Staff and executives like to say this year\u2019s 14-event slate was Season 1, while 2022\u2019s eight tournaments should be considered Season 0. That means 2024 will be Year 3, and Season 2, if you follow.<\/p>\n With LIV, things are never exactly as they seem.<\/p>\n Which is why, over the weekend, only four and a half months after a supposed death notice was in the mail, a LIV source, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, looked out over the scene at Trump Doral and told me that what was thought to be the end might\u2019ve actually been the beginning. Think about it, he asked me, would the PIF really pour somewhere around a billion dollars into LIV and not keep going?<\/p>\n Suppose not.<\/p>\n So, if the framework falls apart, where does LIV go from here, I asked.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we double down.\u201d<\/p>\n As it often goes, Norman, LIV\u2019s polarizing CEO, was front and center over the weekend at Trump Doral. The 68-year-old walked the grounds with Apollo, an English lab with an endearing disposition. Norman shook hands. He flipped hats into the crowd. He puffed his chest in a form-fitting polo. He also, more notably, made his first public comments since both June\u2019s framework agreement, and since PGA Tour officials testified in front of the Senate<\/a> that he\u2019s disposable. In a brief session with a few reporters on Thursday, Norman said neither he nor LIV are going anywhere.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we go into 2024, we\u2019ve got corporations coming in,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll have them signing up before the end of the year, and we\u2019ll have new players as well.\u201d<\/p>\n So often, the perceptions of LIV\u2019s future are tied directly to its ability to add talented players. At Doral, Phil Mickelson said another \u201cwave\u201d is coming this offseason. Bubba Watson backed him up. \u201cThere\u2019s interest,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople are calling, texting. They are asking for help to try to get in the league. Phil knows it. We all know it. The higher-ups know it, and we are just working through the details.\u201d<\/p>\n Simply more bluster from an operation styled by bluster? Perhaps.<\/p>\n Similar claims were heard around this time last year. At the time, the PGA Tour believed it held the high ground. Legacy matters in golf and it thought it had history, loyalty and morality on its side. Monahan, the tour\u2019s commissioner, continued to call LIV an \u201cirrational threat\u201d from a foreign government marred by human rights violations and ties to 9\/11 attackers<\/a>. Things were trending the tour\u2019s way, including a unifying meeting in Delaware getting key players on the same page.<\/p>\n That 2022-23 offseason, LIV didn\u2019t raise the ante with the kind of mega-upfront-payouts it used to recruit its original 48-man roster. The result was only a trickle of middling additions, no disrespect to Sebastian Munoz or Pereira.<\/p>\n But dynamics are different heading into the 2023-24 offseason. The tour punted the morality card by entering into its framework agreement with PIF and infuriated its membership<\/a> by making a deal without its approval, resulting in a reshaping of the policy board and addition of Tiger Woods<\/a>, providing the players with a shift in power. Now, to maintain its talent, the tour is reliant on legacy allegiances, restructured elevated (some of them no-cut) events aimed to funnel money to top players and a newfound partnership with TGL, a venture headed by Woods and Rory McIlroy.<\/p>\n The sums needed to pare away more talent from the PGA Tour today are believed to be massive figures. Two tour agents contacted for this story both said any current high-profile tour player would demand similar sums (or more) to those early LIV enlistees received. While never officially announced, it has been reported that Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Mickelson and perhaps others received payments of more than $100 million each.<\/p>\n But that could be exactly what LIV is prepared to offer.<\/p>\n Last week marked Gary Davidson\u2019s final event as acting COO of LIV. The co-founder of Performance 54, a sports advisory and strategy firm, Davidson came into the post in December 2022, following the departure of Atul Khosla, a longtime sports executive who left amid a wave of senior officials departing the fledgling golf league. At the time, documents obtained by the New York Times suggested LIV faced steep challenges<\/a> in gaining sustained traction.<\/p>\n Ten months later, the framework agreement has now changed that view. As Davidson puts it, \u201cIn terms of long-term planning, it\u2019s opened up a couple of doors and taken away some of the headwinds.\u201d With less pushback, Davidson says, LIV is moving forward in adding new teams in 2023 (from 12 to 13, or 14, or maybe up to 15, the max LIV can field as long as it holds onto its shotgun start formula) and finalizing \u201clong-term commitments\u201d from venues that will host repeat events for the next two or three years. Additionally, changes are being considered in a variety of areas from branding to the broadcast product.<\/p>\n Davidson is stepping aside for Lawrence Burian, a former executive vice president with the Madison Square Garden family of companies who will now oversee LIV\u2019s day-to-day business operations. Burian\u2019s hiring (and his multi-year, multi-million-dollar contract) is the first of several C-suite appointments coming over the next few weeks, according to LIV sources. Having spent much of its existence heavily reliant on outside consultants and contracted firms, LIV should soon have a more formal executive leadership team, including a new chief marketing officer.<\/p>\n Challenges remain steep. LIV\u2019s application to earn world ranking points was recently unanimously rejected by the Official World Golf Ranking. It\u2019s unclear if or when it will reapply. As a result, pathways for LIV players into the majors will continue to dwindle. Davidson said discussions are ongoing for LIV players to receive exemptions into some majors, but such a scenario seems doubtful \u2014 the same group that denied the OWGR claim runs the major championships.<\/p>\n So. New executives. New teams. And, potentially, new players.<\/p>\n We were told earlier this summer golf\u2019s turf war was over.<\/p>\n These scenarios suggest otherwise.<\/p>\n Walking off Doral\u2019s 18th green after a pro-am last week, Charles Howell III looked around and acknowledged that life is good. The 44-year-old won three times in 609 PGA Tour appearances over two decades, pulling down just north of $42 million before moving to LIV in 2022. This season, in individual earnings alone, he made just more than $8 million.<\/p>\n Howell was thrilled when news of the framework agreement dropped on June 6. He remembers friends on tour telling him, \u201cMan, you made the right decision.\u201d But that wasn\u2019t the gratification of that day. It was, instead, the feeling of a potential peace treaty coming to fruition, bringing both tours together. It was a feeling that LIV had validity. He felt a page turned.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year was such a whirlwind with all the negative stuff on social media \u2014 that\u2019s all obviously calmed down and died away,\u201d Howell said last week. \u201cNow it feels real.\u201d<\/p>\n While the first part is arguable, Howell\u2019s point speaks to the issue at hand. LIV has always been real. The question has been whether it\u2019s what golf fans want.<\/p>\n Team championship week began with a news conference of eight team captains picking opposing teams to face in Friday match play. Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa began things by pitting his Stingers GC team against the lowest-seeded club \u2014 Kevin Na\u2019s Iron Heads.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are picking the Iron Heads,\u201d Oosthuizen said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have Stingers versus Iron Heads!\u201d the moderator exclaimed. \u201cAll right, Louis, talk us through the decision. Why did you pick the Iron Heads? You don\u2019t have to be kind! You can have a little fun!\u201d<\/p>\n Asking Louis Oosthuizen to talk smack is like asking a tree to grow faster. The 41-year-old looked around, expressionless.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019re happy with that selection and didn\u2019t really want to play any of the other teams,\u201d he responded.<\/p>\n It\u2019s something that comes with so much of LIV \u2014 this constant, thirsty desire to manufacture smoke that\u2019s not there. To make golf louder, simply play music. That\u2019s how I came to find 2021 U.S. Amateur champion James Piot standing over his final opening tee shot (for now) on LIV in front of maybe 30 people with Rihanna\u2019s \u201cPlease Don\u2019t Stop the Music\u201d blasting from a speaker 10 feet behind him.<\/p>\n Swathes of Trump Doral were nearly empty last week. On Friday, a herd of bodies moved along following a match between Phil Mickelson and Koepka. Other parts of the course looked like they were hosting a practice round.<\/p>\n Larger crowds came for the weekend, but it was exceedingly difficult to decipher audience from attendees. As one longtime observer put it: \u201cMore people are paid to be here, than pay to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n Everyone from LIV staff, to executives, to content producers, to fans say they enjoy the golf. They say everyone is having a good time. They ask, what\u2019s wrong with that? What\u2019s wrong with something different? Why the hate?<\/p>\n Yet many of those same voices privately acknowledge mass appeal seems miles away. And that, sure, the league is struggling for TV viewership and lacks major corporate sponsorship. And, yeah, there\u2019s a major issue with delivering a show that matches the hype.<\/p>\n By the end of the weekend, Howell, DeChambeau and Crushers GC were joined on-stage by team championship runner-up, RangeGoats GC. Much of this \u2014 the names, the logos, much of the bit \u2014 was panned early in LIV\u2019s existence. If onlookers wanted to think this was all a joke or non-serious competition, they were given plenty of chum. It\u2019s unclear how married the tour is to maintaining all of its early brandings.<\/p>\n None of that was on anyone\u2019s mind at Doral late Sunday, not amid the spraying champagne, and the confetti cannons, and the smoke machines. And not with Swedish DJ Alesso warming up to take the stage.<\/p>\n But was anyone else watching? LIV, by way of the PIF, can spend all the money it wants, and double down or triple down on its billion-dollar investment, but it still has to manufacture a product that people want. LIV loyalists will blame the league\u2019s lack of connection to a broader audience on everything from \u201ccorporate media\u201d to the hypocrisy of the PGA Tour to political leanings, but it\u2019s on the organization to create something real. Golf that people care about.<\/p>\n A week before Doral, Chase Koepka, the younger brother of five-time major winner and LIV alpha Brooks Koepka, was trailed by cameras in Saudi Arabia. Formerly a journeyman searching for status on tours in the U.S. and abroad, Chase followed his brother to LIV, cashing in on an upfront payout (significantly smaller than his brother\u2019s $100 million-plus deal, but certainly over seven figures) and claiming one of four spots on Brooks\u2019 team (Smash GC).<\/p>\n Chase finished 27th in the league\u2019s individual 2022 standings, ahead of known PGA Tour names like Ian Poulter, Phil Mickelson, Kevin Na, Harold Varner III, Graeme McDowell and Marc Leishman. He felt validated. A thankless road led to this.<\/p>\n With the 2023 season, LIV introduced the idea of relegation. Just as PGA Tour players can lose their cards with poor play, four players at the bottom of LIV\u2019s season-long points list (Nos. 45-48) are relegated unless they have a contract for the following year. Heading to Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City, along the Red Sea coast, Chase found himself needing a strong week to climb out of the bottom four.<\/p>\n Instead, he stumbled to a last-place finish. Rounds of 73-69-74. The younger Koepka lost his spot on LIV, while his brother, only a few months removed from winning the PGA Championship, won LIV Jeddah in a playoff victory over Gooch. Chase was booked for relegation, along with Piot, Jed Morgan and Sihwan Kim.<\/p>\n At Doral, Chase knew he was playing his final event for both his brother\u2019s team and LIV \u2014 now, and quite possibly, forever. We spoke on a practice green one afternoon last week. At 29, he sounded like a guy facing the last rites of his career. Unsentimental honesty.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just been a really, really tough year,\u201d he told me. \u201cIt\u2019s not been fun \u2014 sitting there, grinding it out, working 8-10 hours a day, just trying not to finish in last place. I mean, that\u2019s not fun. It wears on you. But that\u2019s what it\u2019s been.\u201d<\/p>\n Chase said he plans to step away and reevaluate things after the season. The feeling of losing an invisible war is what every golfer relates to. That\u2019s why LIV\u2019s cameras followed Chase at Jeddah. The story. He understood the inherent drama. \u201cI think that\u2019s something cool,\u201d he explained. \u201cThey should document that. You know, it sucks getting relegated. I wasn\u2019t happy about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Even with its many issues, LIV\u2019s format can create storylines that resonate.<\/p>\n The team element is LIV\u2019s bargaining chip and the league knows it. The format can deliver captivating play (the Crushers\u2019 win, via an insane Dechambeau recovery shot on Doral\u2019s 17th hole, was legitimately interesting golf), while the drama of roster management is inherently intriguing. There\u2019s a reason the NBA<\/a> offseason is a cause c\u00e9l\u00e8bre the league milks for all available attention.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot that will be going on, with our trades and transfers, and the draft, and the promotions event, and finishing off the international series schedule,\u201d said Davidson, the outgoing COO, who will still maintain a role with LIV while returning to Performance 54. \u201cWe want to make sure that there\u2019s a lot of talking points \u2014 that there\u2019s a lot of news over the next three months.\u201d<\/p>\n But will LIV golfers be treated like athletes? Reports of players being released and traded? Legitimate roster moves? Guys cutting ties? Things that might not be in the best interest of one\u2019s brand? It\u2019d maybe be intriguing to follow. Or at least something new in golf. But does anyone really expect a league catered exclusively toward money and fun and brands to embrace any discrediting of its own marquee players? Captains are safe from relegation, after all. Thankfully for Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer.<\/p>\n A subplot at Doral was an ongoing rift between Brooks Koepka and Matthew Wolff, a 24-year-old struggling to relocate prodigious talent that made him a major commodity for LIV. Wolff is on Koepka\u2019s team and bitterness between the two has played out in public. Koepka has questioned Wolff\u2019s work ethic and openly criticized his play. This week, he said of Wolff: \u201cSometimes you can\u2019t help people that don\u2019t want help.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Captain Bryson DeChambeau and Crushers GC celebrate after the LIV Golf Invitational on Oct. 22 in Doral, Fla. (Cliff Hawkins \/ Getty Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n