LIV Golf’s recruitment this summer has been underwhelming to say the least.
As the golf world waited with bated breath to see who would be the next PGA Tour star to jump ship and join LIV Golf, it seems the answer was… no one of note.
It was rumoured that recent PGA Tour winners would be joining LIV, but instead, it’s been a player who has just earned his tour card, Laurie Canter, and Victor Perez, who has never won on the tour.
After a disappointing season for LIV, where none of their players won a major and only three played in the Ryder Cup, the tour’s ability to attract big-name players has been called into question. But CEO Scott O’Neil said it’s all a part of his recruitment strategy.
“If you compare the strength of field, which I have, our team has, across the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, for the first 25 players, it’s pretty, pretty close,” said O’Neil.
“The next 25 is not as close, and so it’s incumbent upon us to make sure that we create enough pathways and that we’re given the opportunity to, without fines, suspensions, threats, so and so, that allows players the opportunity to come into this incredible league.”
If that’s the real reasoning behind LIV’s recruitment this offseason, then O’Neil has something completely wrong.
Why Scott O’Neil is wrong about LIV Golf comparison to PGA Tour
Not only is O’Neil wrong about the strength of his roster in comparison to the PGA Tour, but there’s basically no argument for his point.
Yes, the very top of the rosters are comparable. Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm are worthy competitors against the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. Even Joaquin Niemann and Tyrrell Hatton can play with the best of them when they’re on their games. But after that?
Rather than its weakness, the PGA Tour’s greatest strength is the ability of its top 25 players. From Tommy Fleetwood to Maverick McNealy, from Ben Griffin to Keegan Bradley, almost no matter the field during the height of the PGA Tour season, there will be star power and top-talent teeing off.
Who is the best young player on LIV Golf right now?
That simply cannot be said for LIV. There’s a reason they need DeChambeau and Rahm to play week-in, week-out. If they don’t, who are we watching for? A 55-year-old Phil Mickelson? Thomas Pieters? Both finished in the top 25 of the LIV standings last season. Neither would have on the PGA Tour.
O’Neil’s comments seem to be trying to spin a disappointing offseason for recruitment into a wider strategy, when instead, it’s clear LIV signed players like Canter and Perez because they couldn’t land a bigger fish.
And Brooks Koepka could rub salt in the wounds with a decision that would spell the beginning of the end for LIV.
Brooks Koepka could make devastating decision for LIV Golf
In a bombshell report, it was revealed that Koepka may be leaving LIV Golf ahead of the 2026 season. That would be a devastating blow for LIV after a disappointing offseason.
If Koepka were to walk away, it would be the first offseason where the LIV roster got weaker, rather than stronger. He’d be the first superstar player to call it quits after he jumped ship from the PGA Tour in 2022.
Even if O’Neil truly believes his argument, it becomes a lot harder to make it if a five-time major winner were to walk out the door.
What would the impact of Brooks Koepka leaving LIV Golf be?
His claim is almost entirely based on the hope that the likes of Cameron Smith and Dustin Johnson can rediscover their prime form and help LIV form a highly competitive league with multiple-time major winners.
Players like Koepka are the key to that, so if he can carve a path back to the PGA Tour for these stars to follow, then it could be the end of LIV as we know it.
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