It feels like we’ve written this about 100 times since the league’s inception, but LIV Golf – finally, gruesomely – is dead. Though mainstream golf media has been accused of cheering for that outcome, the news brings us no joy, because let’s be honest, LIV Golf provided a lot of incredible content during the past five years. Whenever there was a lull in the weather, LIV Golf would come storming in with a viral moment that would have us all glued to our keyboards, unsure whether to laugh, cry or simply walk into the ocean.
RELATED: LIV Golf was a concept that came, saw, conquered, but couldn’t last
This is a celebration of those moments. There will be a time and place to unpack the Big Stuff – the politics, the money, whether the league actually did accomplish its stated goal of “growing the game”. But before we get into [waves arms wildly] all of that, let’s take a look back at the odds, ends and absurdities that helped to make LIV Golf our favourite sports soap opera.
The Bash Bros. 
Photo: Aitor Alcalde/LIV Golf
If you had to sum up LIV Golf in one image, I would argue it’s this. LIV Golf’s first two scalps, one who hadn’t blinked for three hours, the other who could barely keep his eyes open, posing together at the first (and last? did they ever do this again?) LIV draft in June 2022. I remember someone commenting “Hunter Biden and Eric Trump” on this photo, and that joke will stay with me until the day I die.
Bryson’s House of Pizza
Bryson DeChambeau is responsible for more than his fair share of memorable LIV Golf moments, but he started it all with a pizza-shop analogy that sliced right to the heart of the LIV Golf pie.
Orrrr maybe not. Even Tucker Carlson, no stranger to a little deep-dish B.S. himself, seemed confused by this one. Oh well, when the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie, that’s a-Bryson.
Rope-A-Dope
Speaking of DeChambeau, his most indelible LIV Golf moment came a few months later at Rich Harvest Farms, when the one-man content factory tangled with a gallery rope and went down like an NFL slot receiver who just got speared by Ray Lewis coming over the middle.
The peanut gallery offered their thoughts and prayers as only they could, while the broadcast quipped, “Off with his head!” Personally, I wouldn’t be joking about beheadings while cashing pay cheques from the Saudis, but to each their own.
Tee’d off
Through the rose-tinted lenses of 2026, it’s hard to believe that Patrick Reed was once golf’s supervillain. But gather ’round, young whippersnappers, and you shall hear the tale of Christmas Eve 2022, when Rory McIlroy received a subpoena from one of Reed’s attorneys while celebrating the holidays with his family.
A few weeks later, Reed tried to make amends with McIlroy at the Dubai Desert Classic, but when he was ignored, he responded by flipping a LIV-branded tee in McIlory’s direction. McIlroy survived the vicious attack and would later go on to win back-to-back Masters. Truly a Christmas miracle!
Varsity blues 
Rahm was already the Big Man on Campus (BMOC) when he transferred from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf in late 2023. However, just like prison, where you have to pick a fight with the biggest guy on your first day, Rahm had to re-establish his alpha status upon joining the Saudi circuit. He wasted no time doing so, posing for his first photo shoot in a slick LIV Golf letterman jacket that practically screamed “THAT’S MY QUARTERBACK!” Rahm loaned the jacket to YouTuber Rick Shiels when Shiels signed a content deal with LIV Golf, but the jacket went missing shortly afterwards. If you have any knowledge of its whereabouts, please call 1-800-WORLD-GOLF-HALL-OF-FAME.
Mob rule
Remember those sweet, innocent days of yore when flash mobs were new and fun and novel and not annoying or disruptive at all? Unfortunately, that was about a decade before this iconic moment at LIV Golf London in 2023.
To all the haters that said the LIV tour coudnt make golf cool I bet your feeling pretty dumb now https://t.co/k0gH48Bdfg
— PFT Commenter (@PFTCommenter) July 7, 2023
The Penn & Teller Incident
LIV Golf off actual TV here in Brooklyn with a few holes left on Sunday. Channel 11 decided to go with S9E8 of Penn & Teller "Animal Style". Not a joke.
— Dan Rapaport (@Daniel_Rapaport) May 14, 2023
Television was not a nut LIV could ever crack, but the league’s lowest broadcast moment came during LIV Golf Tulsa in 2023 when the CW pulled coverage of Dustin Johnson and Cameron Smith’s playoff showdown for… ‘Penn & Teller’ re-runs. Other shows that aired instead of DJ’s dramatic overtime victory included ‘Young Sheldon’, ‘Magnum PI’ and at least one confirmed local parade. You gotta have thick skin if you want to make it in showbusiness, kids!
LIV cribs
Ashley Perez left Pat Perez in 2023 and Pat Perez left LIV Golf in 2024, but for a brief moment in time, the pair were a power couple, savouring the LIV haterade like a fine Bordeaux. At the height of the blowback against the Saudi league in 2022, Ashley took us inside Chateau Perez with an Instagram story that showed off the couple’s interior décor choices. Kick back, relax and enjoy.
We guess it’s true what they say: home is where the heart is.
Poults’ profanity
Throughout LIV Golf’s turbulent run, players were quick to remind us they didn’t give a damn what the rest of the world thought while simultaneously acting more insecure than your mate during his fiancé’s bachelorette trip to Las Vegas. Case in point, Ian Poulter’s F-bomb-laced tirade at LIV Houston in 2024, where the notorious Ryder Cup instigator found himself on the receiving end for once.
“”You were f–king quacking it up on the 18th tee,” Poulter was heard on camera shouting at the fan . “So f–k off… I suggest you shut the f–k up!” Despite all that quacking, apparently it wasn’t water off the duck’s back after all.
Masterisk
Remember when Talor Gooch said the 2024 Masters would have an asterisk because he wasn’t playing in it? Boy, we really didn’t know how good we had it.
The Board of Governors
— claire rogers (@kclairerogers) February 27, 2024
of the
Augusta National Golf Club
cordially invites you
to check out the
newly redesigned green jacket pic.twitter.com/TVo1HAvSSj
Kim’s other comeback
Most golf fans would agree that Anthony Kim’s comeback, culminating with a win at LIV Golf Adelaide this past February, was not only one of the best stories in LIV Golf history, but golf history. Kim disappeared from golf for more than a decade while battling substance abuse and mental health issues that nearly took his life. To even tee it up again after what Kim endured was an accomplishment. To win was nearly unthinkable. The kind of thing that only happens in movies. Yet Kim took the chance LIV Golf gave him and ran with it, and if LIV is only remembered for one thing, we hope it’s this.
Hopefully Kim’s social media comeback will be less memorable, however. Though his personal situation is no laughing matter, the former Ryder Cup hero provided more than a few chuckles on X where he emerged as an unexpected reply guy during his LIV tenure. Kim notably sparred with Brandel Chamblee in 2024, calling the Golf Channel pundit a “p—y” and “talentless fool” in a tirade that would have crossed the line at a construction site, let alone on Golf Twitter.
Where golf takes Kim next remains to be seen, but here’s hoping it’s far away from social media, because this is not exactly chicken soup for the soul.
The final Fireball
Fireballs captain Sergio Garcia is known for getting mucho picante on the course, but nothing compared to his tee tantrum at this year’s Masters. After driving it into the fairway bunker on the second hole on Sunday, Garcia exploded, breaking his driver and damaging Pink Dogwood’s hallowed teeing ground. The moment helped to usher in a “code of conduct” crackdown that led to a handful of player warnings and penalties throughout the year, but it may have had an even bigger, and unforeseen, impact on LIV Golf.
According to reports, LIV purse-string puller Yasir Al-Rumayyan was so embarrassed by Garcia’s outburst on golf’s biggest stage, that it led him to the pull the PIF plug on LIV Golf a few weeks later.
Other factors reportedly included the region-wide conflict, specifically the snip-snap-snip-snap closing of the Straight of Hormuz, that kneecapped the Saudi government’s financing capabilities. From a golf POV, though, it’s a lot more fun to believe that’s LIV’s demise was due to a Masters meltdown, not war.
