LIV Tour: What You Need to Know
By Bradley Turner, Keiser University College of Golf Director of Online Golf Instruction – MBA, PGA
Fifty years ago, a new golf tour was established to provide playing opportunities for professional golfers. The European Tour was founded in 1972, formally expanding championship golf from Great Britain and Ireland into continental Europe. The creation of the European tour would broaden the game’s appeal, resulting in more participation and new professional golf stars. The first few years of the European Tour were difficult, as the best players in the world gravitated to the PGA Tour, where the prize money was significantly more. In 1972, the leading money winner on the European Tour was Peter Oosterhuis, with approximately $30,000 in US dollars, while on the PGA Tour, Jack Nicklaus won over $300,000! If you were a top player, clearly America was the place to play because the PGA Tour provided the best competition and the most prize money.
The European Tour needed golf stars to create interest for the fledgling tour. The first prominent European star was Seve Ballesteros, who became the face of the new professional tour. The American fans loved watching Seve play, but he played a limited schedule on the PGA Tour as he wanted to help grow the game in Europe. Eventually, the European Tour found new golf stars like Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle, and Ian Woosnam to play primarily in Europe. It took some time, but these players were the catalyst for what is now the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour) which has been an enormous success over the last half-century. The PGA Tour and the DP World Tour have worked together over the past fifty years while providing outstanding playing opportunities for the world’s best golfers. In 2022, both tours increased prize purses beyond anything seen in professional golf. That is until the LIV Tour showed up with a colossal amount of money to entice the professional golfers to join the tour.
LIV Tour
Fifty years after the establishment of today’s DP World Tour, the LIV Tour is not looking to grow the tour participation organically but to explode into the professional golf world by paying today’s superstars’ ginormous appearance fees for participation. It has been reported that Phil Mickelson signed up for the LIV Tour with a $200 million appearance fee, Dustin Johnson received $150 million, and little-known James Piot (US Amateur Champion 2021) received $1 million to play. For Piot, he will make $2 million in 2022 by finishing last in every one of the LIV Tour events. He will likely be cashing north of $3 million for the year on the LIV Tour. Not a bad income for a young professional golfer in his first year!
LIV represents the roman numeral for 54, which is the number of holes played for each of the eight tournaments in 2022. Each tournament purse in 2022 will offer $25 million in prize money, with $20 million allocated to the individual players. Only 48 players will participate in each event, with 12 player teams drafted at the start of each tournament and will play for the remaining $5 million in a team format. The top three teams of the 12 will share the team payout of $3 million for first ($750,000 each), the second-place team gets $1.5 million, and $500,000 for the third. That is enough to get players excited about their teammates’ performance. I am not so sure fans care too much if the Cleeks team will beat the Niblicks in the team competition, but the players will have the incentive to care!
The US Open increased the prize purse from $12.5 million in 2021 to $17.5 million this year. Compared to the recent LIV Tour event in London, Matthew Fitzpatrick took home $3.15 million for his major championship victory, while Charl Schwartzel banked $4.0 million for his win at the inaugural LIV Tour event. Last place (48th) on the LIV Tour received $120,000 and the player finishing 48th in the US Open received $50,672. The US Open is double the prize purse at most PGA Tour events. The Canadian Open purse is $8.7 million, with Rory McIlroy winning $1.56 million and 48th place taking home $22,567! The average PGA Tour event will be offering about a third of the money for the professionals to play. Money motivates most people, so it is easy to understand why players have decided to participate in the LIV Tour.
The Players
As of June 19th, there are eight of the world’s top 50 ranked players defecting to the LIV Tour; DJ (16), Koepka (19), Ancer (20), Oosthuizen (23), DeChambeau (30), Na (34), Reed (38), and Gooch (39). That leaves 42 of the world’s best available to play on the PGA and DP World tours. However, this number is likely to change over the remainder of the summer as more players look at the money and see that other superstars are joining the LIV Tour. The CEO of the LIV Tour, Greg Norman, has envisioned that the top 48 players in the world will eventually be playing on his tour. Currently, the fields are top-heavy with a few stars, but the remainder of the fields are moderately successful professional players with a few virtual unknowns in golf. If Norman’s vision of professional golf comes to fruition, the golf world, including broadcast television and the Golf Channel, will need to adjust their current position on the LIV Tour since golf fans follow the superstars.
World Golf Rankings
A potential stumbling block for the LIV Tour is the World Golf Rankings (WGR). The rankings are used to invite players into the major championships of golf and currently require events to be 72-hole competitions to be eligible for WGR points. Over the next few months, there will undoubtedly be political power moves from all parties to influence the WGR system. If the WGR does not allow the best players on the LIV Tour to earn points, their participation in the Masters, PGA, US Open, and Open championships are in jeopardy. The superstars of the game want to win major championships, so this decision may become the breaking point for the LIV Tour. The money provided by the LIV Tour may last as long as there is oil in Saudi Arabia. But if the best players are not eligible to play in the major championships, how long will money keep the players on the LIV Tour?
PGA and DP Tours
No business likes the idea of a new competitor moving into a market to establish a rival product. Competition is an external factor in every business in the world, and it is uncontrollable for the most part, so businesses must adapt and innovate to survive. Assuming the LIV Tour survives over the next five years and players receive World Golf Ranking points for participation, the PGA Tour and DP Tour will need to re-evaluate their stance on participation. Taking the proverbial ball and running home is not an innovative approach to a competitive problem. Both tours must provide a product that entices the top golf stars to participate and for fans to support.
Money is a powerful motivator, and that will not change.
If you’d like to study with Bradley Turner and other PGA Master Professionals, contact the College of Golf today.
Competition will always be there, despite some people’s desire to denigrate the competition!
Just interesting that what Tiger said was true.the young players leaving the PGA will never play the traditional tournaments of the PGA and have a chance to put their names on some terrific trophies .
At one point the PGA was a fledgling org. Their marketing made it what it is today. Once one of the networks starts showing the LIV tournaments the PGA will come around. I will say it has been fun watching the young guns go at it on the PGA.
Co-ordination of all tours would seem to be the best for all and for golf and all fans. Disputes never benefits anyone and only causes disenchantment for all. Let us all realize this and make this world a much better place.
Had the PGA been more generous in its tournament payouts and had more than 125 eligible players there is a good possibility the LIV tour would have never come into existence. Interesting how many things changed with the PGA and how they moved toward a LIV concept. If LIV stays the current course the PGA will need to seek a compromise in order to survive with really top-notch talent. Maybe it is a time for a leadership change at the PGA and the PGA, LIV and the DP Tournament seek a compromise that benefits all professional golfers.