LIV Golf hires Madison Square Garden exec as Chief Operating Officer

LIV Golf has a new executive.

A day after the completion of the 2023 team championship event at Trump National Doral, the upstart circuit named Lawrence Burian as its new Chief Operating Officer. Performance 54’s Gary Davidson had been serving as the acting COO after Atul Khosla left the position in December of 2022.

Burian will oversee LIV’s day-to-day business operations as well as lead its corporate development and strategy as the league looks to commercialize its 12 teams.

“Lawrence is a proven leader and a proven winner, and we couldn’t be more excited to have him on our executive leadership team,” said LIV Golf CEO and Commissioner Greg Norman in a statement.

Burian formerly spent time as the Executive Vice President with the Madison Square Garden family of companies and has experience across the sports, entertainment, media and hospitality sectors, areas that are crucial to LIV’s product. Before MSG, Burian worked for a decade at Cablevision Systems Corporation, MSG’s former cable, media, sports and entertainment parent company.

“I am excited to join LIV Golf as Chief Operating Officer and look forward to harnessing my more than two decades of senior executive experience to help build on the progress and momentum that is well underway,” said Mr. Burian.

“Adding Lawrence to the LIV executive team is the clearest indication of the next phase of this league’s growth and future aspirations,” said Davidson. “Lawrence is an excellent addition to the Senior Management team and brings a wealth of experience which will be invaluable as we enter the exciting next phase of the business.”