Whatever you think of LIV Golf, something that cannot be denied is that the formation of breakaway league is going to have a real impact on how the PGA Tour, and the game of golf as a whole, is going to look in the years to come.
After nearly three years of there being a split in the game, it would appear that golf is getting closer to coming back together. Tiger Woods confirmed that a deal could happen soon between the PGA Tour and the PIF.
Interestingly, Woods suggested that the deal will see the best players playing together again. With that, questions will be asked regarding what the golfing landscape is going to look like in the future.
Clearly, the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and LIV Golf will not be able to continue as they are while also letting the best players face off more often. So something will have to give.
Paul McGinley says the PGA Tour needs to make change inspired by LIV Golf
And it seems that the PGA Tour have been encouraged to take a page from LIV’s book.
Speaking on the Sky Sports Golf Podcast, Paul McGinley believes that the PGA Tour, as it is, is not sustainable – and they need to find a way to ensure that they create a setup where their best players are required to tee it up at each event.
“The business model has changed, golf as a business has radically changed. We’re competing now, not just in elite sport, we’re competing against the NFL, we’re competing against the Premier League, we’re competing against tennis, we’re competing against other sports. And one thing I would like to see changed, and it’s one of the things that I think LIV have got absolutely right, is contracting players. And this idea of an independent contractor, where the players pick and choose where and when they want to play, there’s no other sport that thrives when that happens,” he said.
“People talk about the Formula One model, ‘we want to follow the Formula One model’. But yeah, tell me when a driver ever misses a race. I’ve said it before, imagine Mo Salah dictating to Liverpool, ‘I don’t want to play Newcastle, no, it’s too cold up there, I don’t want to go up there in February and play that game. My wife likes going to London, I’m going to go down and play the London matches because I like that city, and I don’t play against Leicester and I’m going to take this week off’. That’s what happens in golf.
“Players make decisions 100 percent themselves. And although I think that’s good for the sport, it’s not good for the tours.”
The big problem the PGA Tour may have
There is definitely something in McGinley’s suggestion. While there is so much wrong with LIV, there would have been plenty of people who were intrigued about their season-opener in Riyadh given that it was the first real chance of the year to watch the likes of Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka compete.
Events would not have to work as hard to attract audiences if they could guarantee that all of the star players would be teeing it up. However, that does not guarantee success as LIV Golf Riyadh showed with its dreadful viewing figures in the United States.
The big problem is getting the players to sign up to such a structure. Rory McIlroy plays a vastly different schedule to Scottie Scheffler, for example. In fact, many of the American players will only venture out of the country when The Open Championship comes about.
Having said that, the PGA Tour will perhaps argue that having boosted purses considerably in recent years, a reschedule of some kind is the only way forward.
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