LIV Golf might have had a successful event over in Hong Kong but that doesn’t mean the PIF-backed tour is exempt from fan criticism.
With the PGA Tour often getting the brunt of fan annoyance, the LIV tour seems to go unnoticed in some elements, including its TV coverage.
For golf fans wanting to tune into LIV, having the LIV Golf app is essential and after things were previously free to air, LIV now charges fans a subscription to tune in.
However, while that’s all well and good for a top product in sport, it’s not exactly ideal if the app doesn’t work and ultimately, fans cannot see the golf they want.
And worryingly for LIV, it seems that LIV Hong Kong has once again shown them up on this aspect.
LIV Golf fans fuming at coverage from Hong Kong
With the tournament being played in a different time zone, it’s only natural that those in the UK or the USA would need to tune in via their paid app to see the action.
However, popular golf account Flushing It posted to criticise the app and it’s coverage, which in turn, caused a bit of a pile on for the LIV Golf tech bods.
A couple of fans slammed how hard it was to even see the scores.
“Not having a leaderboard or access to the leaderboard anywhere on the home page is puzzling.”
“Also not having the leaderboard on the home page is crazy, when I go to the app to see current scores and have to search through several pages to see it there is a problem“
While another couple suggested that LIV might even be cutting budgets already given their lack of interest in sorting the issues.
“Doesn’t this make you second guess your thoughts about the future? Clearly they are cutting budget“
“With all those $trillions of PIF $$$, you’d think they could fix an app? Shows how much at this point they really care about their future. So far, 20% of the season is gone, the app doesn’t work, Fox delays the broadcast, no coverage in India, and still no new signings, no sponsor revenues, Koepka wants out, no nothing. Nice league.”
Another fan went a step further, accusing LIV of ripping off fans and ignoring complaints.
“We’ve all been ripped off with this “subscription”. More like a Ponzi Scheme. There’s a lot of negative feedback making its way to LIV League about the issues. But they haven’t even acknowledged the problem or tried to fix it. Starting to think they simply don’t care about us.”
While another supporter suggested that when LIV get it right, they do it better than the PGA Tour, making it all the more baffling they are struggling.
“The ironic thing is via the website – the ability to watch any shot after it’s been logged is still head and shoulders ahead of any other tour.. however we know what that they can do, and it’s no where near good enough this season”
LIV Golf need to draw in new fans
After LIV Hong Kong saw Sergio Garcia win and Phil Mickelson roar back to form, LIV is in an ideal position to capitalise on fans in terms of getting them to watch.
But with problems even accessing the content, it seems that tour is already shooting itself in the foot.
The PGA Tour continues to have its own problems and there is a clear divide between certain fans who choose to watch LIV and those who sit on the PGA Tour side.
However, if LIV cannot even get their apps working for fans to tune in, then those fans will quickly switch to other options, completely defeating LIV’s business plan.
This is something that needs sorting. And quickly.
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