LIV Golf could have hardly wished for a better start to the PGA Tour season as they look to make significant improvements in their fourth year in existence.
It has been an underwhelming off-season for LIV Golf. Arguably, LIV’s biggest signing over the winter was Rick Shiels, with no marquee names making the jump from the PGA Tour.
Meanwhile, it has been a disappointing start to the PGA Tour calendar. The likes of Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele have missed events through injury, while Rory McIlroy is yet to play stateside so far this year. And the PGA Tour has come in for real criticism for the pace of play issues which continue to plague their events.
So there is a window of opportunity for LIV Golf, with their first event coming in early February. The season will kick off at Riyadh Golf Club.
LIV Golf decision criticised ahead of the season opener in Riyadh
And interestingly, it was announced this week that the event will be played under the floodlights, with Fox Sports able to show the tournament at a much more suitable hour in the States.
LIV has not been afraid to mix things up over the years. So it is hardly surprising that they have taken this decision. And it is certainly not surprising that it has divided opinion.
Speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Rex Hoggard suggested that LIV may just be trying too hard to be the complete alternative to the PGA Tour with the decision.
“It feels kind of gimmicky. Look, that tour is trying to find some sort of inroads and it has the new contract with the media partner at Fox this year, and so, you’re trying to do something special,” he said.
“I understand the idea of wanting to play it as close to primetime as possible in the United States. But we’ve talked about this before, you saw what happened at the Olympics last year, and the idea was you’re not going to show anything on tape delay anymore.
“If you wanted to watch badminton at 3 o’clock in the morning, you can go on Peacock and watch badminton. I think that’s what people want. That is the new norm for people who want to digest, who want to consume their content when they want to consume their content. And in this particular case, you’re playing it at night, which I never find very compelling to begin with. And you’re just doing it to try and get in a window. Don’t do it. Just play it in the middle of the night, and if people want to watch it, they’ll watch it.”
LIV right to roll the dice, but the timing is questionable
It is potentially a mistake to take the opening event of the year and play it under floodlights, when there is greater potential for an anomaly of a result. There are different challenges of playing at night time, as the golfing world saw when Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka lost at The Showdown in December.
But LIV is still developing. If this event proves to be a huge success, perhaps there is scope for a spin-off league in future which includes a handful of events played at night.
Obviously, the circumstances were very different, but the PGA Tour did not appear to benefit from a season-opener at Kapalua which is so unique compared to everything else played throughout the year. The Sentry received poor viewing figures as Hideki Matsuyama set a new record by reaching 38 under par.
It will be intriguing to see whether LIV’s roll of the dice proves to be inspired.
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