LIV Golf take public dig at the PGA Tour after first round of their 2025 season concludes

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LIV Golf is up and running for the 2025 season with a memorable opening round under the lights in Saudi Arabia to kick things off in style.

LIV have become the first tour to play in the dark and the event in Saudi seemed to go down a treat with the fans both at the course and watching on TV.

For the PIF-backed tour, there’s a real chance in 2025 for them to advance ahead of the PGA Tour in a number of aspects.

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One of those key metrics is around pace of play, as slow play continues to dominate the conversation over on the PGA side of things.

Indeed, the Farmers Insurance Open a few weeks back saw the final group take five and a half hours to get round.

And after that sparked a number of conversations on the slow play issue, LIV Golf have now had a quick boast and dig at the PGA Tour after their opening round in Riyadh.

LIV Golf takes aim at the PGA Tour after round one of LIV Riyadh

With an exciting first round in the bag and Adrien Meronk leading at 10 under par, LIV can be delighted with the first offering under the lights.

However, they seem more delighted with the pace of their player, and took to social media to seemingly have a little dig at the PGA Tour.

With only 54 players in the field and a shotgun start, LIV events are always set up to move along that bit quicker.

Still, it was refreshing to see such speed and have everyone back in the clubhouse before the four hour 30 mark.

Ian Poulter calls for fines to solve slow play

One of the players over on LIV Golf with plenty of experience in the slow play of the PGA and DP World Tour is Ian Poulter.

Indeed, Poulter believes the only way to stop it is to bring hefty fines into play.

“It’s one of those that fining players is probably the only way to do it aggressively and fairly enough but again it comes down to having the staff available to actually watch every shot and evaluate every shot and punish people on the spot, but it’s difficult to have a referee in every single group so a lot of things get missed,” Poulter said.

“Because of that we have slow players and it’s frustrating for the viewer and some of the players who aren’t slow.”

LIV Golf seem to be leading the way on a number of aspects in the sport right now and the PGA Tour will be well aware as they seek to improve their own product.