STERLING, Va. — The show goes on.
But for how many weeks? Months? Next year? Those are questions that will be debated and debunked and ultimately decided, over a time to be determined.
But for now, the LIV Golf League ... well, lives.
Amid a backdrop of uncertainty, the league kicked off its LIV Golf Virginia event with its traditional shotgun start on Thursday afternoon, the festivities beginning with music blaring as players warmed up on a driving range, putted on a practice green and ultimately got to their assigned tees to begin the $30 million tournament.
If the skydivers from the Frog-X Parachute Team who descended onto the Trump National DC grounds as part of the opening scene had come from outer space and devoid of golf news, they’d have had no clue that anything was amiss.
Bryson DeChambeau stepped onto the first tee, the ground beneath him shaking from the nearby music stand. “Welcome to the Jungle” blared while he discussed what to do with caddie Greg Bodine. before he ultimately pulled an iron from the bag.
As the first tee announcer bellowed his name, the spectators who were drowned out by the music cheered anyway. Then the two-time U.S. Open champion stood over the ball and ultimately swung at it while AC/DC’s “Back in Black” provided the ambiance. His shot sailed into the left rough, but no matter.
“Golf But Louder” remains LIV’s mantra but how it looks in the future—if exists at all—remains the gloomy question.
DeChambeau was caught off guard by the Public Investment Fund’s recent decision to pull its massive funding for the league following this year.
On Tuesday, he told reporters here that he was “completely shocked.”
“I didn't expect it to happen. A couple months before that, it's like, we're here until 2032. We've got financing until 2032,” he said of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund which has poured more than $5 billion into the endeavor. “And so I told everybody, and that's what I was told. And then I haven't had any communication. And unfortunately, things are moving on in a different direction. Obviously, they wanted to move on.”
Speculation over what DeChambeau will do next—his LIV contract is up after this year—is rampant, but he’s also pledged support for the league even as his representatives reach out to see what his options might be elsewhere. He suggested that his YouTube channel could occupy his time if LIV folds, but on Wednesday night he was with CEO Scott O’Neil, pitching investors to jump aboard a now Saudi-less enterprise with the idea of reconfiguring the product.
How that plays out was mostly of little concern to fans on the grounds Thursday, a decent if not overflowing group of spectators who were on hand for the first round.
“I like golf and I happen to like the atmosphere, the music. It’s fine,” said Lonnie Dotson, who traveled more than two hours from Charlestown, Md., to attend the event. “I’ve been to PGA Tour events, went to the BMW last year (at Caves Valley outside of Baltimore). And next week we’re going to the PGA Championship (outside of Philadelphia). But we think the atmosphere here is cool.”
Dotson said he bought $150 tickets for he and his wife weeks ago, and while he doesn’t follow all the ins-and-outs of the LIV Golf drama, he did become alarmed when he saw the news that LIV Golf’s New Orleans event was being postponed.
“I wondered are they dropping the whole thing and saying we’re done now?” Dotson said. “It was a little nerve racking.”
But getting to see Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson (“even though it looks like he’s just living the good life these days”) and DeChambeau up close and in person was part of the allure.
“The PGA Tour is more prominent, I’m seeing the rise of Cam Young,” he said. “The thing that hurts LIV is the lack of exposure for it. You don’t hear as much about it.”
Dotson was speaking in the tournament’s fan village, and you could almost here the audible sighs and groans from the white colonial-style clubhouse. This is LIV’s seventh event of the year but its first in the United States, where gaining traction in Year 5 has still proven difficult.
LIV Golf pledged being “additive” in its early days, an idea that has some value when it is followed. Zach Friberg made the drive from King George, Va., because it’s within an hour of his home and “I don’t care who is playing I just want to see golf. It’s something to do, I was off from work today, I wanted to see it.”
Friberg said there are no PGA Tour events nearby. And so here he is.
But if LIV survives, can it even return to the Trump property? The Washington, D.C.- area course is a high-end private property that is expensive to utilize.
In its early days, LIV Golf had no choice but to go to venues willing to host them in exchange for a hefty rental fee. It has gone to Trump courses every year and has another on the schedule in August.
Going forward, finding places that pay LIV Golf—Australia, South Africa, Spain, for example—almost certainly has to be the model. So does perhaps cutting events, cutting purses and cutting back on some of the massive buildouts that appear to be too much for too little return.
Perhaps golf, but a bit quieter.
So, too, does finding substantial sponsorship support. There are plenty of sponsors noted on the various signage on site—Ping, Callaway and HSBC stand out.
But then there is Aramco, Riyadh Air, Roshn Group and Maaden, which is actually the event’s “title” sponsor.
Aramco is a Saudi oil company, Riyadh Air is a PIF-owned company that has yet to fully launch, Roshn Group is a Saudi real estate company and Maaden is a Saudi mining company.
With PIF backing the league, are those simply examples of taking money from one pocket and putting it in another? Will the PIF and Saudi companies remain in golf-sponsorship mode? O’Neil believes they will, but if so, that will require an exchange of cash that LIV Golf will desperately need—along with plenty more.
This is the second time LIV has come to Trump National DC, a property President Trump bought in 2009 that borders the Potomac. In 2015, Trump installed a plaque between the 14th and 15th holes commemorating a Civil War battle that took place on the property called the “River of Blood.”
One problem: it apparently never happened. Despite Trump’s own inscription describing the battle, historians dispute it, citing the “Battle of Ball’s Bluff” in 1861 that occurred some 11 miles away on the Potomac as the more likely occurrence.
While there might be all sorts of metaphors that apply to the battles waged in the aftermath of LIV’s launch in 2022, it is perhaps more fair to point out that this bit of misinformation is consistent with the LIV narrative.
Depending on your disposition, LIV was either going to overrun the PGA Tour or run aground. Neither has occurred, but certainly the latter appears on the table, despite the festive mood and the otherwise pleasant atmosphere that was on display Thursday.
The show goes on.
More Golf from Sports Illustrated
- Michelle Wie West’s Nerves Show in Her First LPGA Event in Three Years
- Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm Need to Be Allowed Back on the PGA Tour
- Ian Poulter Has Thoughts on What LIV Golf Needs to Do Next
- Luxury Golf Developer Cabot Announces Its First Resort Combining Two Outdoor Passions
This article was originally published on www.si.com as At LIV Golf Virginia, the Show Goes On ... for Now.
