LIV or 54 in Roman Numbers
The LIV golf league is most likely going away for good at the end of this season. The Public Investment Fund has stated that it will not guarantee funding after the 2026 season which is a little like telling an employee they will be fired in a month’s time. Generally, if you fire someone you don’t let them twist, you just fire them and then have the security guy watch them box up their family pictures and obscure certificates of achievement and march them out of the building at lunch time. It seems like PIF should just pull the plug now. No one will have any interest to watch this ship slowly sink over the next few months. But, to be clear, no one had much interest in watching this ever. The league got a lot wrong but there were some things they did I actually liked. As a sort of coda to LIV I graded each innovation LIV brought to the game:
Shotgun start. This was an utter failure. The rhythm of championship golf is pretty much perfection when you have the leaders tee off last. The contenders who are quite a few strokes off the lead can go low early and put pressure on the leaders. Their last few holes are happening right when the leaders are making the turn or earlier and the close chasers are finishing while the leaders are on 13-16. This allows the broadcast to take time to frame and provide context to the chaser’s most high leverage shots. It also gives the viewer early peaks at how the final stretch of holes will play before the leaders reach them. The shotgun start is confusing as to which holes have been played by each group. Also golf courses are designed to be played starting on hole 1 with some hard holes strung together, think Amen Corner, the Bear Trap and the Snake Pit to name a few of the more famous sequence of holes. Pete Dye courses tend to have the hardest and most dramatic holes at the every end. All of that intention is lost in a shot gun start. The shotgun start also ends with everything, everywhere happening all at once which is supposed to be more exciting but I just found it a mess (kind of like the movie). Grade F for shotgun start.
54 holes. This is the name of the league in roman numerals, clever huh? If they named the league for the 54 hole idea you would think they would be committed to that. Not so much, as they just decided to change the format to 72 holes, probably in an attempt to get WGC points. The senior tour only does 54 holes because they’re seniors and if you can’t do better than that well why are you a professional golfer. Why don’t they just take carts? There has been speculation that LIV players underperform in the majors now because they get tired out or something. Maybe, Jon Rahm and Cam Smith have regressed since going to LIV. Regardless, I like watching golf so having one less day of golf sucks. Grade F for 54 holes.
No cut. The cut has always created compelling story lines that unfold late Friday afternoon. I find the cut pretty awesome. Seeing guys gut out the last few holes in order to make the cut is great drama. You don’t get a paycheck if you miss the cut. It’s just a great concept that really doesn’t exist in too many other sports. If you play like shit in a baseball season you still get paid for every single game whether you play well, play poorly or don’t play at all. In tennis you get paid even if you lose in the first round. In LIV you got paid $50K for finishing last. Grade F for no cut.
Shorts. I love to wear shorts. I love to watch men play golf in shorts, or any clothing for that matter. If it’s hot, golfers should be able to wear shorts. Have you seen Bryson DeChambeau’s thighs? I mean, you didn’t before LIV came along. We don’t still force golfers to wear tweed coats. Tennis players used to wear flannel pants and they changed that in the 1930s when some dude named Bunny Austin wore shorts at Wimbledon. We aren’t in the Victorian era anymore. Women wear almost nothing when they play beach volley ball. Ditch the pants. Grade A for shorts.
On-course music. The entire league was built around this as the catch phrase is Golf But Louder. Which is certifiably dumb but anyway, I don’t like the music. It’s hard to hear what songs are actually playing. It just sounds like music coming through the wall from the neighbor’s apartment when you’re trying to sleep. I do like to play music on the course at a reasonable volume when I’m not too close to the clubhouse or other players but the music gives the broadcast a feel of watching cornhole on the Ocho. Grade C- for music on course.
Torque’s Logo – I can’t figure out what those things are.
Teams. I like the team concept! The marketing is bad; the names are cheese, I’m looking at you Range Goats. The logo for Torque looks like a bunch of tampons laid horizontally to form a letter T. The slogan of the Southern Guards is “I Am Because We Are” which sounds like it could be a Britney Spears tattoo she got with Kevin Federline. Regardless of the marketing struggles, the extra layer of competition provides a rooting interest between players that didn’t have any reason to react to each other’s play in any way. Although I don’t know how the teams would evolve in the future, as some of the popular players skill’s declined or if you just were a bad team. For example, Phil Michelson’s HiFlyers really suck this year and not just because Phil has been injured. The team also has Brendan Steele, Cameron Tringale and Michael LaSasso. Brendan Steele is the highest ranked player and he is 34th in the LIV overall standings. This team is the Washington Wizards of LIV but, you know what, the Wizards get the number one pick in the NBA draft coming up. Where does help for this version of the HiFlyers come from? It doesn’t really matter because the league is going defunct. Grade A for teams. Grade F for team marketing departments.
International venues. LIV goes to Australia, Saudi Arabia, Korea, South Africa, Mexico, Hong Kong, Spain and England as well as the several tournaments they hold in the United States. When they talked about growing the game this was one example of how they were actually doing it. The popularity of the events at the international venues is where the new league succeeded most. The PGA holds some Asia and Latin American events but these are usually opposite field or fall events though. Other than The Open Championship and The Scottish Open the Tour holds none of it’s prestige events internationally. The Tour should hold more international events especially in Australia and Asia. International venues get a B.
Murderous regime sportswashing. Everything above relates to actual golf but we must mention that LIV was funded by money from Saudi Arabia, whose leader, according to a US intelligence report, ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. The funding is an attempt to improve their reputation on the international stage and the players, broadcasters and event venues that took the money are complicit and willing accomplices in that effort. Grade F for murderous regime sportswashing.
Overall, two top grades for shorts and teams. Everything else is pretty much garbage. I won’t miss LIV as I rarely watched it but I think the PGA tour could borrow from the team concept. For example, if the PGA tour established teams it could be really fun and eventually a valuable property. I think having larger teams than LIV had, more like 10 members instead of 4 and have it work like fantasy golf where you start 4 golfers out of the 10 person team. This would provide intrigue as to who the manager will start or bench. The PGA could have a draft at the beginning of the season for all golfers that earned their card and then at the end of the season have one team tournament where all members play for the championship. This could be a goldmine for the PGA tour. Otherwise, RIP LIV you won’t be missed except for teams and, oh, the shorts.
