You’re far more likely to have seen the video than you are to have watched a few holes of LIV Golf this year.
The video has the superstars, it’s got the high(ish) stakes, it’s got the banter, and the absurd Phil one-liners.
“Just so you know, we don’t do Venmo or PayPal or any bulls**t like that. Straight cash,” Mickelson says.
“Is there a First American Bank around here?” DeChambeau replies, seemingly with sincerity because what 30-year-old carries cash in 2023?
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A few days later, DeChambeau equalled golf’s lowest-ever round, shooting 58 at the Greenbrier to join Jim Furyk in the record books.
How many people watched is hard to say given viewer uptake in season two was so poor that TV numbers stopped being reported.
DeChambeau’s round might’ve made headlines, but not waves. That’s because some argue there’s an asterisk attached to it, like there is to many things that happen between the LIV Golf ropes.
Is a round of 58 really a round of 58 when fired in a 54-hole tournament with shotgun starts, a team side pot, and music blaring in the background?
Of course, the answer is yes — even if the vibes are more corporate golf day than cutthroat tournament play.
But these are the sorts of tough questions LIV Golf can’t hide from having dramatically stalled in season two, despite expansion to a 14-event global tour.
That jarring halt could now trigger an existential crisis with viewer apathy not boding well for LIV Golf in protracted merger talks with the PGA and DP World Tours.
LIV continues to throw money at its problem, such as by handing out $50 million (A$79.5m) at the Team Championship in October.
Even so, the most absorbing thing to come out of LIV Golf this year — when faced with a merger that could easily destroy it — was four guys playing “nine holes for a G” in front of no one.
Bryson DeChambeau shot a 58 during this LIV Golf season, but few saw it.Source: AFP
LIV Golf must urgently determine why few people cared about the mega-money event, or one of its stars achieving all-time greatness earlier, but will go bananas for rogue content shot during a practice round.
The video features no big gimmicks, and uses no ‘look-at-me’ tactics, but taps into a point of difference by providing the masses with greater access to two megastars.
The video does, however, end on a strange note with DeChambeau awkwardly declaring: “This stuff is only the beginning to something great with LIV.”
It’s a bold call which loses much of its thrust through DeChambeau’s lack of conviction.
If there’s some credibility to the claim, then it’s in those 1.8 million views which show that on some scale, LIV Golf has something worth tuning in for.
Finding whatever that is within a bloated team format, and an atmosphere of chaos, is almost impossible, exposing a potentially fatal flaw as golf’s top brass continues to ponder its future.
Frankly, nothing LIV Golf has done for its tournaments has been nearly as savvy as taking us inside one of Mickelson’s legendary practice rounds.
Everything else by LIV Golf has been done with a sledgehammer: $200 million here to get Phil. Another $140 million here to get Cameron Smith. Get players to talk about how awesome LIV Golf is. Make sure the commentators do the same every one-to-two minutes. Amplify the volume of the ball hitting the cup to a million decibels, because that is surely what the fans have been craving.
Not enough? How about we blast Avicii’s iconic ‘Levels’ at the same volume across the entire golf course. ‘Forget about satisfying OWGR criteria, people will think this is awesome!’
Of course, most golf fans don’t think that’s awesome, and are now left wondering why this has been worth splitting up the world’s best golfers for.
LIV Golf has taken a sledgehammer approach, but failed to make more ground.Source: Supplied
LIV Golf is now realising — or at least it should be — that endless Saudi money, and being different for the sake of being different, simply isn’t enough to overhaul an entire sport.
The rebel circuit’s failures continue to mount, and the timing couldn’t be worse given its funder’s merger talks with the PGA Tour have already placed it under existential threat.
LIV Golf’s pull with potential targets has weakened. Smith’s signing from inside the top-three of world golf in September 2022 was meant to precipitate an avalanche of big-name defections, but it proved to be the end of them.
Chief Greg Norman has n