If it seems like things have been a bit quieter than usual on the LIV Golf front — yes, even with the Masters approaching — that could be because the breakaway golf league is busy at work brainstorming how it will expand its empire in 2024.
But there is still plenty to contend with in 2023, and it’s fair to wonder how desperate Greg Norman and his contemporaries are as they continue trying to make LIV Golf a sustainable venture.
In an in-depth piece this week, Sports Illustrated revealed that LIV Golf is working on plans to grow the league in its third season. Said growth could include adding more teams to its current format and expanding from 12 four-man teams to 15.
SI reported that these new players would come from “the Asian Tour International Series or Monday qualifiers” and that adding teams won’t affect LIV’s current 54-hole event format.
But there are plenty of wrinkles LIV Golf still has to iron out behind the scenes before it can successfully expand. SI details that contracts for LIV’s current roster still cause confusion, whether it involves the number of events players are required to compete in or how the winning money gets divvied up among team members.
There is also LIV Golf’s very complicated relegation process that it implemented this season, and there is no guarantee the league will attract enough interest from outside golfers to join next season and replenish the league.
Then, of course, there are the more public issues that LIV Golf is dealing with. There is the ongoing antitrust suit against the PGA Tour, which was dealt a gut punch at the start of 2023.
Then, there are the dismal TV ratings of the first two events of the season that followed months of courting channels before finally reaching a deal with the CW. (And it’s anyone’s guess what the ratings will be like this upcoming weekend for the third event of the season in Orlando.)
But even with its issues, LIV Golf is still trying to chug along and look to the future. It will be interesting to see if LIV Golf can overcome its growing pains and expand like it wants to next season, or if its lingering ailments become too much to overcome.
