LIV Golf need a big change in 2026 after damning revelation emerges following Dallas event but it’s out of their control

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LIV Golf is still in its infancy, so it’s no surprise that the more established PGA Tour continues to outshine them when it comes to viewership figures.

The PGA Tour continue to dominate LIV Golf when it comes to the TV audience numbers.

But why is that?

LIV have some exceptional golfers on their tour, including the likes of the big-hitting Bryson DeChambeau, the enigmatic Jon Rahm and multiple major winners Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson.

However, there does seem to be something missing when it comes to fans’ interest in the Saudi-backed golf league.

The PGA Tour is streets ahead, even when their big guns Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are not playing.

The PGA Tour and LIV continue to hold discussions about a merger between the two tours, but there are plenty of sticking points that are proving to be impossible to get around right now, one being LIV’s insistence on the team competition remaining.

LIV Golf as an entity is not going anywhere, I think we can all agree on that. However, something has to change if they are to have any kind of leverage in negotiations with the PGA Tour regarding a potential merger.

LIV Golf need a big change in 2026 after revelation following Dallas event

Patrick Reed won the LIV event in Dallas last week, while Aldrich Potgieter triumphed at the Rocket Classic on the PGA Tour.

The LIV event boasted many more star names than the PGA Tour had in the field at Detroit Golf Club.

And a damning revelation has just emerged regarding the TV Viewership figures of both events.

Aldrich Potgieter’s win provided the PGA Tour with their biggest viewership figures at the Rocket Classic since 2020.

The PGA Tour attracted an average of 2.79 million viewers during the final round, while their viewership peaked at 5.13 million.

Meanwhile, it was slow going for LIV in Dallas. The event was broadcast on FS2 in the U.S. on Sunday, and attracted an average of only 75,000 viewers. LIV Dallas was broadcast on Fox on Friday and Saturday and pulled in an average of 333,000 and 263,000 viewers respectively.

So why the huge discrepancy between the two tours? Well, in my opinion, the interest quite simply isn’t there from the fans because LIV events are somewhat meaningless right now.

There are no world ranking points up for grabs, so whoever wins on LIV, what does it actually mean in the grand scheme of things?

Back in April it was claimed that LIV Golf were close to reaching an agreement with the Official World Golf Rankings hierarchy regarding a deal to award ranking points to their players.

However, no further progress seems to have been made since then.

In order to be taken more seriously, and more importantly, for golf fans to actually care about the outcomes of the tournaments, LIV need to find a way of world rankings points being awarded during their events.

If they manage to do that, I personally believe the viewership figures would go up significantly overnight. It’s very hard to get passionately involved with something as a fan when there is nothing substantial on the line besides money.

LIV have done their players no favours if alleged 2026 schedule is true

The Sports Business Journal have released what they say is the 2026 LIV schedule.

And if it is correct, the powers that be at LIV will have a lot of questions to answer from their players.

Here is what the 2026 schedule apparently looks like.

There are so many issues to unpack here. Firstly, the players may not appreciate being overseas for pretty much an entire month.

And what about the preparation for major championships? There is an 18-day gap between the end of LIV South Africa and the start of The Masters.

The players will then have a two-week break in between LIV Spain and the US Open, before a three-week lay-off separating LIV New Orleans and The Open Championship.

Surely there should have been more U.S. centric events scheduled in and around the PGA Championship and the US Open from mid-May to mid-June.

Instead, the LIV players will be in Virginia, before trekking across to South Korea and Spain and ultimately returning back to the United States for LIV New Orleans.

Having a tournament at the end of June in ‘The Big Easy’ is questionable as well, given the heat and humidity there in the summer.

LIV still have a very long way to go before they gain the respect of golf fans the world over. However, a good place to start would be offering their players a schedule that allows them a better chance to compete in the majors.