LIV, the Tour, and Pro Golf’s Big Unfinished Fight

Pro golf is still tense, folks, and I don’t think anyone can honestly tell you exactly where this thing is going.

We’re hearing that Jon Rahm may be on his way out of LIV at the end of the season. We know other players have already left. We know LIV has been running on what looks like a shoestring budget, and now we hear there’s a new investor and what Bloomberg described as more of a rescue loan than anything else. That tells you a lot.

Does anybody care about LIV?

That’s the blunt question, and I think the answer is: some do, some don’t.

If you’re playing on LIV, you care. If you’re a fan who just wants more golf, maybe you care. But has it reached everyone they hoped it would? No, I don’t think so.

At the same time, I don’t think it’s as simple as saying LIV failed and the PGA Tour won. That’s too tidy, too easy, and it misses what’s really happening.

What LIV may have wanted all along

Craig Renshaw made a fascinating point, and I think it’s worth sitting with. He believes LIV did not want this version of a full-blown rival super tour. They wanted the biggest names, all the names, to move back and forth.

In other words:

• a handful of elite events

• star players together

• global stops

• players still free to play majors and other tours

That sounds much more like an all-star concept than a separate ecosystem. If that was Greg Norman’s vision, then the resistance from the PGA Tour changed everything.

The PGA Tour’s own problems are still there

Now let’s not act like the PGA Tour is standing there spotless and secure, because it isn’t.

Rory McIlroy has said there are unresolved issues. Those are his words, not mine. He said he’s going to be watching his life, his personal life, and his schedule carefully because serious issues remain.

And Craig said something that cuts right to the bone: the PGA Tour is a middleman.

That may sound harsh, but there’s truth there. The Tour packages television, sponsors, and structure. That matters. It’s a platform. It’s an entertainment product. But it also means the players keep pushing on the old question: if they’re independent contractors, why do they need permission to go elsewhere?

That issue hasn’t gone away.

This is really about sponsorship and viewership

At the end of the day, Bob Denney put it exactly right. The two elements are:

• viewership

• sponsorship

Sponsorship drives everything.

And the Tour has its own uncertainty. Schedules are changing. Events are being shifted around. Sponsors don’t want to be pushed into lower tiers. The Tour is clearly trying to sort out its calendar, its product, and maybe even how much it wants to fight football in the fall.

So where does that leave us?

It leaves us with a game that will survive, but a professional structure that is still shaking itself out. LIV looks unstable. The PGA Tour looks unsettled. The players still want leverage. The sponsors want clarity. The fans want the best players together.

That, to me, is the whole story right now: pro golf isn’t finished changing, not by a long shot.