With PGA Tour ratings tumbling by the week, many within the game of golf want to see a deal done between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour to try and bring things back to a better place with the best players.
With a whopping 18 players withdrawing from the Farmers Insurance Open this week, the PGA Tour is having a tough old week.
Furthermore, the withdrawals come in the midst of Sepp Straka winning last week’s AMEX, with viewing figures for that event down more than 50% from the 2024 event.
Those figures have sparked quite the conversation on social media, with golf journalists and fans once again debating about the need for a deal between the two biggest tours.
However, one PGA Tour player, Byeong Hun An, has actually suggested it might not be the answer.
Why a PGA and LIV deal might not solve TV ratings problems
With rumours last year of LIV pumping around a billion dollars into the PGA Tour, many expected things to have moved along by now but alas, the issue remains.
And now responding to a discussion point raised by golf journalist Matt Vincenzi where he suggested the PGA Tour have got to get a deal with LIV done, PGA Tour player Byeong Hun An chipped in with an alternative opinion.
“It looks that way. I don’t think bringing the players from LIV will help it massively. We will see the rating go up first couple and start dropping again. I do agree the game will be healthier and better with the deal but I think we need better product, more golf to be shown, less commercial etc. I’m not smart enough to have an idea for better product but I hope someone does,” Hun An wrote.
And in a more concerning comment further along the thread, Hun An then suggested he’d heard worrying news when it came to LIV seeing a return on any potential investment.
“Someone mentioned we might see more commercials because they don’t want to lose money on what they invested in,” he added.
Why LIV Golf might not actually want a PGA deal
The suggestions seem to be that everyone wants the game to come together and be as one again but the reality is that LIV may well feel they’re building enough themselves that they can actually topple the PGA in the end.
Indeed, that was a feeling shared by Rex Hoggard, who suggested that LIV going head to head with certain PGA events shows they want to challenge the establishment.
“The comments from officials with LIV was that they didn’t want to go head to head with football. I understand that, nobody wants to go head to head with football. But you only have 14 events. There is a lot of room on the calendar to work 14 events in, as opposed to 45 events on the PGA Tour. That one seems to suggest to me that we are probably not as close as a lot of people think they are to coming to some sort of agreement,” Hoggard said.
With the LIV season due to start soon and LIV signing Rick Shiels to a content deal, it seems PIF are ploughing on with their own plans.
With that, any notion of a deal being done in 2025 seems a long way off.
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