Written by Mac Engel
The Fort Worth Telegram
The city of Indianapolis Saudi Arabia’s attempt to improve its image through professional golf is exemplified by the bad golfer who shoots 19 over par while sporting the newest and most expensive equipment.
Nobody is persuaded by the $500 driver that the man swinging the club knows how to utilize it.
As this ambitious, costly, and controversial company is located in the city known as the Crossroads of America, it is fitting that the third year of LIV Golf is finishing up its 2025 season there. This weekend in Indianapolis, the second-to-last tournament of the season will take place at a course you’ve never heard of in an event you were unaware of or didn’t care existed.
Indianapolis residents, who live in a city (and state) that rarely hosts major pro golf events, expressed greater interest in, in order, games for the Indiana Fever, updates on Caitlin Clark’s injuries, Preseason news for the Indianapolis Colts Indiana State baseball, Ball State kickball, DePauw University women’s golf, Wabash College wrestling, Notre Dame women’s basketball, Purdue men’s basketball recruitment, Indiana Pacers 2025 NBA playoff highlights, and LIV golf.
The criticism of this tour, which was financed by Saudi Arabia’s enormous financial reserves, has largely subsided, but the audience is still primarily made up of people searching for something to do. Who wins doesn’t matter to them. The new regulations are not being followed by them. Most likely, they have no idea who is playing.
LIV Golf is able to outlive both Keith Richards and the most tenacious cockroach due to its support from Saudi Arabia’s limitless PIF fund. And in the end, the PGA Tour will prevail in these dull contests between millionaires, attorneys, members of the royal family, and presidents.
Ian Poulter, a former PGA Tour player and current LIV golfer, gave me this ominous warning at the conclusion of an interview about a year ago: Not next year. This was in response to a harmless inquiry regarding the exact completion date of the PGA Tour and LIV’s once-imminent merger.
A year later, Poulter’s response is still relevant.
Norman, Mickelson win. But who else?
A few influential PGA Tour members gave in to the alleged financial pressure from LIV in June 2023 and said that the new league would unite with the top players in the sport. For the Saudi family, former PGA Tour golfer Greg Norman, and the Tour players who left for LIV in return for sums of money that didn’t seem realistic, the declaration was a huge victory.
Even after more than two years have passed since that announcement, we have yet to get The Announcement. We shouldn’t anticipate one anymore.
Norman and his friend Phil Mickelson are the victors here. Long before he became a well-known representative of LIV, Norman already detested the PGA Tour; Mickelson left the Tour due to his extravagant spending.
LIV is aggressive in the markets that host events in an effort to attract large crowds, and it has expanded its tournament schedule. It’s not a horrible golf product.
In order to show half of its tournaments on multiple Fox Sports channels, it secured a multi-year broadcast agreement with the network. Fox apparently paid a fee to broadcast these events, in contrast to LIV’s prior broadcast rights agreement with the CW, which was a revenue-sharing arrangement.
DeChambeau, others lose spotlight
All of this is development for a new sports league. Due to all of this advancement, the typical golf fan today only sees the names that were once the most well-known in the sport three or four times a year. LIV is not taken seriously by golf enthusiasts, and it is hard to deny the league’s insignificance.
Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm, Bubba Watson, Patrick Reed, and a few other PGA Tour players that left were compensated and allowed to play in the major leagues. They became unknown golfers with nothing to offer prospective sponsors in exchange for these significant victories.
The LIV golfers have misinterpreted this one aspect of this debilitating trip. The big, easy money comes from endorsements, which may earn a pro golfer as much as prize money. There aren’t as many opportunities for LIV golfers to endorse anything.
Sponsors are looking for eyes, and LIV isn’t drawing many. Winning a LIV event doesn’t boost a player’s resume or make them famous. Additionally, some prospective sponsors are so incensed about players using Saudi money that they don’t want to work with them. There’s a reason why none of LIV’s tournaments have a title sponsor.
In the past year or so, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has demonstrated the wisdom to read the room on this merger, despite the well-earned ire and criticism he received for his handling of the entire matter from the beginning.
He won’t because there’s no need to proceed with a partnership. He has one year left on his commissioner contract, so it’s likely that he will let his successor handle this.
Some of the most well-known LIV players are expected to request to return to the PGA Tour because their contracts are set to expire within the next year. You can anticipate complaints about that in the first part of 2026.
Professional golf is better when all of the names are consolidated in one tournament rather being dispersed across two leagues, but that reunion may be unpleasant and result in some nasty name-calling.
The PGA Tour is under virtually no public pressure to complete this merger.
Lee Westwood, a former PGA Tour player who now plays for LIV, hoped the two leagues could coexist and share some of the golf ecology. Due to its niche nature, golf is too small for competitive leagues.
Despite its eternal existence, it is clear that LIV Golf will never become a part of the PGA Tour.
