One of the major talking points after the huge recent merger news is about the future of LIV Golf – will it stay and thrive like Greg Norman says, or will it just go away like Rory McIlroy expects?
Many LIV Golf players and fans have been celebrating what they call victory after the big merger news broke, but just before they go popping the champagne corks if you look a bit deeper it could be anything but a win.
Of course, the likes of Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson have their huge bank balances to lean back on, but they could soon have to go back to the PGA Tour if LIV Golf disappears.
Jay Monahan had ominous words when he said he’d be conducting the review of LIV Golf and it’s future, but didn’t see it running alongside the PGA Tour when asked.
“I can’t see that scenario,” said Monahan. “But I haven’t gotten the full evaluation, the full empirical evaluation of LIV that I’m going to do to be able to comment on that.
“But I don’t see that scenario, no.”
So, will LIV Golf stay or go? Let’s look at the cases for and against and what we know up to now..
The case for LIV Golf to continue
Firstly, as with almost everything in this entire saga, the money. Even for the Saudis there’s a huge sum they’ve pumped into LIV Golf to get it up and running – and with next to no return as yet.
Shutting LIV down after this season would see them writing off all that cash – yes it’s a drop in the ocean to the PIF and their seemingly endless wealth, but even they won’t want to throw all that cash away.
Plus, in just a few events LIV Golf has established itself. Whether you’re a fan or not there have been some big crowds and the event in Adelaide in particular was seen as a huge success.
That also saw big names in golf being taken to a part of the world that hasn’t seen them all too often – in many ways it’d be a shame so see those go away.
Then there’s Greg Norman – don’t underestimate the desire of the Australian to keep this thing rolling after spending so much time and energy preaching to the world that the LIV Golf model was the future.
He’s reportedly told his staff that: “Our business model will not change. We changed history and we’re not going anywhere.”
Norman has also said, as others have, that now LIV Golf is no longer at war with the PGA Tour that the door is open for big sponsors and TV networks to get more involved.
Lastly, there’s the teams and their captains, who have a vested interest in keeping LIV going, with the business model always…
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