Some candles burn brightly but don’t survive, while others are designed for longevity. We bury LIV Golf (2022-2026) in the first category as today, nearly five years since its inception, the league finally accepts its fate.
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LIV Golf is no more, LIV Golf Adelaide is no more and the carnival atmosphere that many cynics labelled a circus is over. Michael La Sasso, ironically the league’s youngest member and one of its final signings, will go down in history as the last LIV Golf champion. Crushers GC and Legion XIII merchandise will become collector’s items and those who embraced what LIV did differently can – and should – remember what it gave us rather than dwelling on how quickly it flamed out.
Plenty of onlookers, mostly based within a certain collection of 50 states, will dance on LIV’s grave. Others, who should remain impartial, will break the journalistic code and opine in glee.
Others will simply miss the additional string LIV added to golf’s bow.
Those of us who reside in any of the world’s 194 countries that aren’t the United States of America are more inclined to understand what LIV Golf gave golf fans, those of us in Australia perhaps most of all.
Anyone who attended any of the four editions of LIV Golf Adelaide will understand the aim. “Golf But Louder” was more than just a catchphrase, it encapsulated the sledgehammer-like entrance it made that rankled golf’s constabulary. Sure, Greg Norman’s long-held beef with the PGA Tour added more spice than a rack of McCormicks jars, but he was the man for the job. At least initially.
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LIV was not perfect. In eulogising its short life, it’s easy to argue that working with its opposition might have been a more strategic and sensible approach, but – to put it in golf terms – the par 5 it played was best attacked by a towering second shot than a timid lay-up then pitch. Especially given the Shark’s on-course history.
But you can’t dispute the impact. The Asian Tour gained instance relevance. The DP World Tour, which always seemed to be looking over both shoulders simultaneously, ultimately had its hand forced. Purses on the PGA Tour exploded overnight. The American and European circuits went on to win the war, but they lost plenty of battles along the way.
And the fans loved it. Again, anyone in Adelaide these past four years, or in South Africa this year, knows how different the concept was and how addictive it became. This February, we met three mates who drove 27 hours from Perth, just to get a taste of it. No ledger scrutinised in any bankruptcy court will ever account for the generation of that particular currency.
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Players make or break professional golf tours. In any autopsy, that’s where the power truly lies. LIV Golf signed hard and fast in 2022 and must have rocked the Florida offices of the PGA Tour in seismic proportions.
Norman would have known it at the time – win over the players and you stand a chance. Luring Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith and others so quickly gave the fledgling league hope. OK, it took obscene amounts of money to do so, but the players must have known the risks involved, especially the likes of Smith, DeChambeau and later Jon Rahm, who were in the prime of their career.
In the end, the players couldn’t handle the lingering uncertainty, a cloud that hung over LIV Golf from the outset. Career decisions had to be made and even the lure of a player-driven “LIV 2.0” wasn’t enough to sate anyone beyond the league’s journeymen.
A golf-playing friend recently posed this question to me: if LIV were a tour player, who would it be? I paused for a moment, immediately thought of John Daly, but deferred instead to Anthony Kim. A player who waltzed onto the scene in brash, charismatic fashion, won a lot – and quickly – then disappeared without a trace. The irony that Kim will be LIV Golf Adelaide’s final champion was not lost on either of us.
