Despite making significant investments to sign Jon Rahm and other top players for the 2024 season, LIV Golf is still unable to match the superior television viewership numbers of the PGA Tour.
“LIV Golf is finding it difficult to entice golf enthusiasts to watch the broadcasts of its contentious independent circuit despite investing significant resources in acquiring players such as Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton.”
Hatton is the most recent big name to leave the PGA Tour after Rahm, the reigning Masters champion, joined the controversial breakaway league last month. Rahm signed a deal with the Saudi-backed league worth up to £450million, prompting Hatton to also make a move with a £50m deal of his own.
The celebrity influence did not succeed in drawing in fans.
The last episode of LIV Las Vegas on the CW only had 297,000 viewers, ranking 51st among all sports programs that day, on par with the Golf Central pregame show before the PGA Tour coverage. The Waste Management Phoenix Open by the PGA Tour had a huge audience with 1.7 million viewers, making it the third most-watched sports programming of the day.
The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was halted because of bad weather, leading to the Mayakoba event by LIV Golf attracting a record audience of 432,000 viewers.
However, it was still surpassed by a re-broadcast of the third round of the PGA Tour event on CBS Sunday, which attracted three times more viewers.
Ultimately, it seems fans resonate more with the history, tradition and legacy of the PGA Tour. LIV Golf remains lagging behind when it comes to attract viewers, which deeply affects the circuit’s ability to secure a broadcast partner for early tournament coverage – and without fan interest, LIV’s long-term future is undoubtedly limited.
Given LIV’s model, it remains to be seen just how willing Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund will be to consistently throw lucrative sums at top players if dollars fail to translate into viewers.
LIV has an agreement with the CW for sharing revenue, where the CW televises the last two rounds of every event, while the first round is shown on YouTube and the CW app. As a result, a significant portion of the tournament does not generate any television revenue.
LIV Golf earned around £2.4m in TV revenue last year, significantly less than the over £400m generated by the PGA Tour. This disparity may be attributed to the PGA Tour’s prestigious venues and tournaments steeped in the sport’s rich history, as opposed to LIV Golf’s new format which has not succeeded in engaging the sport’s fanbase. In LIV Golf, players compete for teams that most fans do not have a strong emotional connection to.
Moving forward, it is not expected that the upcoming two LIV Golf events will experience an increase in viewership. These events are scheduled to take place in Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong next month, which will result in American fans being asleep during the broadcasts.
Additionally, LIV Hong Kong will coincide with the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and upcoming events will also overlap with major PGA Tour events.
LIV Houston will have competitors in the form of the Memorial Tournament, while LIV Nashville will be up against the Travelers Championship.
Additionally, LIV Andalucia will coincide with the Genesis Scottish Open. Meanwhile, LIV Greenbrier will be competing with the FedEx St. Jude tournament.
Discussions about a possible merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf are continuing, but they are currently being impacted by intervention from the US Government. Concurrently, the PGA Tour has recently greenlit a £2.4 billion investment agreement with Strategic Sports Group. This deal aims to allow nearly 200 PGA Tour members to have ownership in PGA Tour Enterprises as a token of appreciation for their loyalty and decision to not join LIV Golf.