With talks between the PGA Tour and the owners of LIV Golf seemingly halting in recent weeks, it is going to be very interesting to see what the future holds for both tours.
LIV Golf changed their approach heading into the 2025 season. There were no superstar signings from the league, with youngsters such as Tom McKibbin and Frederik Kjettrup brought in.
Perhaps LIV made a deliberate choice to move away from spending big on the marquee names. But there is also a chance that the progress in talks with the PGA Tour prompted all of those bigger names to sit tight in the hope that a resolution was close.
So with talks between the PGA Tour and the PIF on hold, many will be intrigued to see how LIV Golf approach the upcoming off-season.
Dan Rapaport thinks PGA Tour winner will sign with LIV Golf
Whether you like LIV or not, one area where they have left the PGA Tour behind completely is on YouTube. The league has embraced the format, with many of their events in previous years, of course, broadcast on the platform.
Meanwhile, The Duels already appears to be an improvement on the Creator Classic, with many LIV stars also getting involved in the idea.
There has been controversy however, with Wesley Bryan being suspended by the PGA Tour after taking part in the first edition of The Duels. Bryan finished just outside the top 125 last year, but had featured in a handful of PGA Tour events this season.
He is returning for the latest edition of The Duels. And speaking on Dan on Golf, Dan Rapaport admitted that he is now seeing a more permanent arrangement between the two in the future.
“I kind of feel like Wesley Bryan, and this is not based on any reporting or insight, I feel like they’re going to give him a spot on LIV next year. It just makes too much sense,” he said.
“He likes content creation as much as playing. If he goes to LIV, he knows what his schedule is. It’s 14 events, they’ll let him film whatever he wants. He doesn’t have to worry about where he is and what he gets into in priority rankings. There’s clearly a relationship there. It almost makes too much sense. It’s also a narrative f— you from LIV Golf – ‘the PGA Tour has this unicorn of the sport who’s half tour player, half content creator, we’re going to take him’.
“Again, I haven’t spoken to Wes about this, I don’t know anything beyond what’s publicly available. It just seems to me, he’s suspended by the tour, now he’s having the event on his channel, so it’s not just that he’s playing in the event, there’s money involved there. That is a business decision, it just seems like it makes too much sense.”
Fans were left angry during PGA Tour event Wesley Bryan starred in in 2024
As Rapaport notes, there is plenty of reason for LIV Golf to try and sign Bryan permanently. Clearly, he is a world-class golfer, having won the 2017 RBC Heritage.
But he also has a large following. His push to keep his card was one of the main storylines during the Fall season on the PGA Tour last year. Fans were furious that Bryan’s course record-tying round at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship was barely shown on the broadcast.
Unfortunately for LIV, there are quite a number of players further down the leaderboard who do not attract that same interest. Depth remains one of the biggest problems for the league.
So signing Bryan would be an inspired move given that he is likely to bring a lot more eyeballs to the middle of the pack if he did join the league itself.
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