LIV Golf earns first real legitimacy in SA with electrifying crowds and high-stakes drama

Launching a professional golf league is an expensive undertaking.

Think $2-billion in signing bonuses to buy the players, a $30-million purse for each tournament, the costs of event staging, operations, production, marketing, a retainer for DJ and entertainer Calvin Harris, and you’re looking at more than $5-billion.

That’s what Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has spent to bring us LIV Golf since its launch in 2022, making it one of the most expensive start-up leagues in history.

Until last week, it was looking like a very expensive failure.

To be clear, that failure is still on the cards, but the LIV event at Steyn City has finally given the league a legitimacy that all the money in the world can’t buy.

We can argue over the motives of those bankrolling LIV. I’ll steer clear of that while pointing out that there are parts of the world that have been massively underserved by top level golf. At the same time, there’s a case to be made that pro golf hasn’t evolved with the times. These were the opportunities, and LIV’s plan from the outset was to address them.

Spoiler: It didn’t. In its first year or so, LIV Golf opted to find its feet with some ill-advised plays in some ill-advised places.

Poor optics

Consider the optics of 48 newly minted professionals “competing” in Jeddah, in front of Saudi Arabian royalty and about 12 spectators. The golfers, already afforded generational wealth for showing up, were in town to kiss the rings of their benefactors.

They were playing exhibition golf for $25-million and a generic trophy. There were no fans in sight. On-course banners read “Golf. But louder.”

The irony was deafening.

The problem, of course, is that if you’re going to pay for relevance, you still need to deliver a good product. When you’ve already made your performers wealthy beyond belief, how do you get them excited about performing in Jeddah in front of nobody?

In their efforts to appeal to this wider audience, LIV’s scattergun approach missed the mark.

Other howlers included stripping away any real jeopardy from competition, and with it, the very reason to watch. Then came the ego management. The Majesticks — a neat pun and a LIV team featuring Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Henrik Stenson — appointed all three as co-captains. Only their fourth teammate, Sam Horsfield, was spared the indignity.

LIV experimented and overcorrected in an attempt to find something that resonated, but when you don’t know who or what you are, what does self-respect even look like?

Finding its niche

Australia is a sports mad country with a rich golfing heritage. It’s also home to some of the greatest golf courses on the planet. Australia’s only drawback is its location on the map.

In April 2023, LIV Golf made the long trip to Adelaide. It wasn’t just the venue, the thirsty crowd, the golfers, the party hole, or someone drinking a beer from a shoe, but the whole chaotic festival that made it a wild and roaring success. In subsequent years too, it was the only LIV tournament worth watching.

That is, until last week when LIV Golf had its first event in South Africa. Whether you found yourself there or not, if you’ve seen the pictures, you know it was something special. The South African crowd created an atmosphere that made the golfers, and the people at home, finally tune in.

You could see it on Branden Grace’s face when they spontaneously burst into the national anthem. And Paul Casey’s face, tearing up discussing his South African parents. Bryson DeChambeau cried too, but didn’t say why. John Rahm, not prone to hyperbole, said very few crowds could compete with this one. There was a lot of raw emotion from golfers who rarely show it.

Self-respect

You could put that down to pride or joy or Black Coffee’s Friday night set, but I go back to self-respect. On Sunday at Steyn City, that $50-million, or $100-million, or $300-million signing bonus could (at least partly) be justified. Those golfers had finally played a role in delivering something that resonated. Adelaide aside, this was the first time many of them could claim to have truly earned their LIVing.

The tournament had a fitting finale too, when DeChambeau beat Rahm in a sudden-death playoff. At the end of this season, both of their contracts will be up. Negotiations will begin. Telephone numbers will be thrown around. Then telephone numbers with international dialling codes. Then the chips will fall, and perhaps no amount of money will be enough to retain its two biggest stars.

Who knows how long the Public Investment Fund is prepared to keep floating this thing? What we do know is that if LIV golf succeeds, it will have a lot to do with what it bought, but more to do with what it found, in SA. DM