“Golf but louder” is one of a few slogans and catchphrases for LIV Golf, but lately the upstart circuit has been pretty quiet.
After an eight-event debut season in 2022, the Greg Norman-led and Saudi Arabia-backed series will transition to a 14-event league in 2023 while keeping its signature format of 54-hole, no-cut events that feature team and individual competitions as well as daily shotgun starts.
With just two months between now and the first event on the schedule – Feb. 24-26 at El Camaleón Golf Course in Mexico for LIV Golf Mayakoba – there are still a few key questions that LIV needs to answer heading into its second year.
Where's the full schedule?
The goal was for both the schedule and team rosters to be finalized by the end of 2022. Let’s start with the schedule.
Only half the events for 2023 have been announced, with three to be held in the United States and one each in Australia, Mexico, Singapore and Spain. LIV officials had previously said they would avoid going head-to-head with major championships and would steer clear of so-called PGA Tour “heritage events,” such as the Memorial and Arnold Palmer Invitational.
| Date | Event | Course | City |
| Feb. 24-26 | LIV Golf Mayakoba | El Camaleon Golf Club | Riviera Maya, Mexico |
| March 17-19 | LIV Golf Tucson | Gallery Golf Club | Marana, Arizona |
| April 21-23 | LIV Golf Adelaide | Grange Golf Club | Adelaide, Australia |
| April 28-30 | LIV Golf Singapore | Sentosa Golf Club | Sentosa, Singapore |
| May 12-14 | LIV Golf Tulsa | Cedar Ridge Country Club | Broken Arrow, Oklahoma |
| June 30-July 2 | LIV Golf Valderrama | Valderrama | Sotogrande, Cádiz, Spain |
| Aug. 4-6 | LIV Golf Greenbrier | The Greenbrier | White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia |
Yet-to-be-announced international events could return to courses that hosted LIV in 2022, such as the Centurion Club in England or Royal Greens Golf and Country Club in Saudi Arabia. Stateside, LIV hosted events at both Trump National Bedminster in New Jersey and Doral in Florida last year, so don’t be surprised if the league returns to those courses (or adds a third Trump course to the mix).
Speaking of relationships, LIV held events at Pumpkin Ridge in Oregon and The International in Massachusetts in 2022, both of which are owned by Escalante Golf. The self-described “boutique owner and operator of numerous properties across the United States” also owns The Gallery Club, one of three already-announced host sites in the U.S. The River Club in Georgia is also operated by Escalante Golf and the course was designed by LIV Golf CEO and commissioner Greg Norman.
Who's playing, and on what team?
There was talk of a bustling offseason transfer market and window of time where players could move from team-to-team between the end of the team championship and start of the first event of the next season. Those claims were beefed up by an ESPN report that Dustin Johnson was dropping Talor Gooch and adding Peter Uihlein – a top-three LIV player – to his team just two days after his 4Aces won the $50 million team title.
Since then it’s been all sizzle, no steak.
The interest in LIV last year was largely focused on the off-course drama and not the on-course action. Instead of the results, the conversation was dominated by which players were jumping ship and the war of words between players and commissioners. There will be more of the same in 2023, but certainly not to the extent of 2022.
LIV’s future rides on the commercial appeal and marketability of its teams and players. With eight weeks between now and the first announced event in Mexico, the team names and list of 69 players remain the same on LIV’s website. That roster of talent was a good start, but won’t be enough going forward.
Where can fans watch?
LIV proved it has a product after successfully holding eight events in 2022. The goal for 2023 was to commercialize that product.
“We’ve got to get on TV, we’ve got to have corporate partners,” said former COO Atul Khosla at the team championship in October. “Those are successful things that we need, those are sort of milestones that we need to hit going into next year.”
Khosla has reportedly resigned from his position, putting yet another obstacle in LIV’s way on its quest for legitimacy in pro golf.
Last season’s events were streamed on LIV’s website and YouTube page for free. LIV also had 20 international partners to broadcast events in 160 different countries. Golfweek previously reported LIV was nearing a deal to purchase air time for its tournaments with Fox Sports 1. LIV would also have been responsible to pay the production cost.
LIV called the report “incomplete and inaccurate” at the time, but when specifically asked at the team championship if LIV would be open to paying for tournaments to be aired, Khosla didn’t reject the idea.
CBS, ESPN and NBC all broadcast PGA Tour events and are assumedly uninterested in LIV. Same goes for Amazon and Apple. So the question now becomes, what’s better for LIV: a TV deal on a smaller network that brings in some money, or an easily-accessible free steam available to any fan on their phone, tablet or TV?
Who’s calling the shots?
Khosla is an experienced executive in the realm of professional sports and left at a crucial time in LIV’s development. Plain and simple, whoever fills that role could make or break LIV’s future if he or she fails to commercialize the product.
As for Norman, players like Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have called for him to lose his job. LIV denied a report that former TaylorMade CEO Mark King was being pursued to replace Norman, with managing director Majed Al-Sorour saying, “Any suggestion that changes are being made to Greg’s title or role is patently false.”
That said, if there’s one thing we’ve learned over the last year with LIV, it’s that when there’s smoke, there’s fire.
Where do we stand with LIV and OWGR points?
A player’s Official World Golf Ranking is key for access to major championships. LIV Golf events currently do not receive OWGR points. The circuit applied in July and is awaiting word as part of an application process that can take up to, and even more than, a year.
Last week the OWGR announced a Mexican golf tour with 54-hole events will start to receive OWGR points in 2023 after a 16-month process, and noted the tour’s inclusion of a 36-hole cut and open qualifying, two aspects that are absent from LIV’s format. Despite their shortcomings in the criteria, LIV believes they deserve points and even formed a “strategic alliance” with the developmental MENA Tour in an attempt to force the OWGR’s hand.
Players are plummeting in the rankings and may have to resort to playing in Asian Tour events on LIV off weeks to slow their descent. Dustin Johnson was No. 15 in the world when he joined LIV and is now No. 41. Brooks Koepka was 19th when he made the jump and now sits outside the top 50 at No. 52. DeChambeau was No. 33 and has fallen to No. 67. The players, especially at the top, desperately need points.
LIV has also proven it will do whatever it thinks is necessary in order to get what it wants. That, however, may require a change in format.
