It was notable that one of the areas Greg Norman recently admitted to being disappointed with during his time as LIV Golf CEO concerned not being more successful in securing the league a television deal.

 

LIV Golf has certainly managed to make a big splash since arriving onto the scene in 2022. Of course, many household names have left the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour to be a part of LIV. Meanwhile, it appears that the PIF are going to get a seat at the table in golf’s future.

 

 

 

Brooks Koepka blames press for…

 

LIV however, remains extremely divisive. There are plenty of genuine reasons to criticise LIV. While the format has potential, it is fair to say that it has not managed to capitalise on the shockwaves it sent through the sport. It was noted that the Creator Classic attracted more viewers than LIV Golf Greenbrier earlier this year.

 

Of course, fewer and fewer people are watching television, and it seems that more are streaming. So not getting a television deal is not the end of the world, by any means.

 

Why LIV Golf will struggle to secure a television deal in the United States

However, Greg Norman conceded that LIV had fallen short when it came to securing a television deal. And speaking on Kostis & McCord, Gary McCord explained why LIV may have such a difficult task trying to get their league picked up by a television network.

 

Greg Norman of Australia The CEO of LIVGolf Tour out watching the golf during the individual team stroke-play finals on day three of the LIV Golf T…

 

Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images

 

“Well, LIV, first of all, they’ve got to get a network to put it on. It is a world tour, they’re going all over the world doing this. Well, you can’t really do television here in the United States when the tournament’s in Dubai and then it’s in Hong Kong, because the time difference,” he said.

 

“We’ve been doing that for a long time now. In the age of computers, you can find out who won and who didn’t, it’s everywhere. So that question of getting someone to broadcast that tour and have it relevant in the United States is just about impossible. It really is. It’s going to be on YouTube and everything else as they do it.

 

“So they’re having a problem identifying their product with the network, and that’s how you identify your product basically, with television. So I don’t see a clear-cut form that you can produce where you make the thing relevant to golfers in the United States, I really don’t.”

 

 

The problems LIV Golf still needs to address despite its early promise

Even LIV’s biggest critics can see that they have done an impressive job considering that no-one would have ever imagined what was coming in the golfing world heading into 2021.

 

 

However, there is so much which needs to improve if LIV is going to genuinely rival the PGA Tour in the years to come.

 

They have attracted some world-class names and legends of the game, but the depth is not there right now. Any casual LIV Golf viewer probably feels little need to look beyond the first few names on the leaderboard at each event.

 

The team format and the notion of relegation does have potential. However, it seriously lacks the tribalism which could take it to another level. Right now, all of the players seem to care about the LIV Golf team just as much as their own teams.

 

Clearly, some think that not being on television is a problem for LIV. But what is surely in no doubt is that LIV need to make much greater waves in the content they produce on YouTube if that is going to be their main platform in the long-term.

 

The good news is that LIV is obviously run by the PIF, so they probably do not need to worry about short-term success quite as much. But if they want to keep the PGA Tour on their toes as talks over a deal continue, it seems imperative that they improve across the board.