Is LIV Golf living up to the hype?

The best time of year for golf is in full swing, and everybody's watching the best golfers in the world go at it. We just saw Rory McIlroy in his first ever masters and finally complete the career grand slam.

However, there’s another version of golf that has taken the world by storm with its modernization: LIV Golf.

LIV Golf was founded in 2021 by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. The goal of this new professional golf league is to be mainly focused on the players and an alternative to the PGA Tour.

The tournaments hosted by LIV Golf are a lot different as they are much shorter with three-round formats, individual and team play, as well as smaller fields for 48 players.

When LIV Golf was announced, a lot of people were very excited to see a new version of golf and how it would be played, and its competition with the PGA Tour.

However, LIV Golf has disappointed a lot of people. People thought that the high-profile signings and the promise of a new and entertaining golf experience would bring a lot of excitement for years to come in the sport of golf, but that has not been the case at all.

Viewership numbers have declined significantly, and some of the biggest stars have even expressed less enthusiasm for the popularity of the league.

But one of the biggest issues that has arisen since the introduction of LIV Golf has been the major financial losses. Many reports have indicated that the professional golf league has lost a massive amount of money.

In 2023 alone, financial records show that LIV Golf lost close to $400 million at its international tournaments. The total investment from the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia reaches roughly $4 billion worldwide and could possibly be $5 billion in the future.

To be fair, LIV Miami drew a total of 484,000 viewers during its final round as the international tournament was televised on FOX.

These viewership numbers were the highest since the 2024 season opener, which had 432,000 viewers. However, these numbers are still way behind the PGA Tour.

The PGA Tour drew 1.746 million viewers for its final round, which was down 20% from last year’s, but still much more than the viewership of LIV Golf.

Even though Fox Sports is a primary broadcast partner for LIV Golf, they have really struggled to attract a large audience with some of their international tournaments, even attracting less than 150,000 viewers.

The PGA tour is going to be tough to beat because of how long it’s been around and how much people are used to it, which is the case for other sports, such as the UFL, which doesn’t get a lot of viewership because of the NFL.

While there has been some growth in TV ratings for LIV Golf, the popularity of the league is still significantly behind the PGA Tour and a lot has to change if they wanna have a chance of being close in the future.

Massimo Buonagurio is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email mkb6750@psu.edu.