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As noted in my previous post this week, your faithful SwampSwami is ready to settle into some spring sports on television after last Sunday’s season-ending pro football game.
Today, let’s cover a sports story which has been overshadowed by media coverage of “The Big Game” the past few weeks.
LIV Golf fans are LIV-id!
Have you heard of the cable television channel called FS2?
Apparently, most US cable TV households have trouble finding FS2 as well.
After concluding a two year TV deal with the CW Network, LIV Golf went in search of a more reputable sports channel to carry their weekly golf events.
Lo and behold, LIV Golf (now in its fourth golf season) inked a new deal with Fox Sports!
On the surface, that sounded like an upgrade for golf fans. Fox Sports covers football, basketball, baseball, and, in the past, even featured the US Open Golf tournament.
In 2024, LIV Golf events were televised on the CW Network and attracted from 100,000 to 200,000 weekend viewers. The rival PGA Tour routinely gets one to two million viewers on CBS.
Last week, LIV Golf’s first tournament of the year was held in Saudi Arabia.
In an effort to get more American golf viewers to watch it, the event was played under the lights so the event would be shown during daytime hours in the States.
Alas, someone forgot to tell LIV Golf that FS2 is harder than finding a black hair on my head in recent years!
Last week’s opening round of LIV Golf in 2025 was televised on FS2.
It attracted (are you ready?) just 12,000 viewers on FS2.
A TV test pattern might be seen by as many viewers on most nights!
If you think that was bad, those 12,000 viewers may have been the largest daytime audience last week for the puny FS2 sports brand.
One media reporting service showed FS2 (the 113th most popular cable channel) topped out at just 9,000 daytime viewers last week.
Making matters worse for LIV Golf, last Saturday’s final round was moved to Fox’ bigger brother FS1 (better!).
It attracted 54,000 viewers between 8AM and 11AM CST. Alas, the golf exceeded its allotted time on FS1, and viewers were told to move to FS2 (if you have it, that is).
In the words of one of my folk heroes, J.D. Clampett, that was pit-i-ful!
This week, you’re going to need 3 different sources to watch LIV Golf!
The golf league tees-up its second event of 2025 in Adelaide, Australia tonight (Thursday). Last year’s LIV Golf event in the land down under was the most popular local event on their 2024 schedule.
The golf telecast is set to begin at 8PM CST tonight due to the time differences.
HOWEVER…if you want to watch LIV Golf from Australia this week, you will need three different sources – the Fox Sports App, FS1, and FS2.
Check out this absolutely brutal television schedule for LIV Golf on Fox Sports:
Is Fox Sports trying to help LIV Golf or shovel dirt on them to bury the golf tour?
LIV Golf has struggled to find a television audience for a variety of reasons. Here is the history of how home viewers have been able to find LIV Golf on television:
Year 1 – via LIVGolf.com only. Yes, the golf telecasts were only available online.
Year 2 and 3 – The CW app carried Round 1 while CW Network TV stations carried the final two rounds.
The CW Network is primarily comprised of former UHF television stations around the country. It is 75% owned by NexStar Media Group (which owns nearly 200 US television stations with an outlet in most major TV markets).
After last year’s second season on the CW, there was a third year option.
Neither party desired to renew it. TV ratings for LIV Golf were about 10% of the PGA Tour weekly events.
Year 4 (now) – Fox Sports has an agreement to carry LIV Golf events. However, good luck figuring which Fox Sports channel you will find LIV Golf each week!
LIV Golf hoped that moving to Fox Sports would enhance its prestige with golf fans. That may sound good, but LIV Golf has been placed into Fox Sports’ version of “Siberia” in early 2025.
The first week of television ratings for LIV Golf on Fox Sports were dramatically lower than they received last year on the CW Network.
In fact, week #1 on FS2 and FS1 placed the golf league’s TV ratings at only 1% of their rival PGA Tour’s audience on CBS.
Note to LIV Golf – Fox Sports’ FS2 network has an average weekly audience which is just 10% of FS1
Truth – FS2 is not available for many cable television subscribers unless you are paying for their premium priced package. My local cable provider (which starts with an “X”) does not include FS2 in their mid-level 125-channel package.
Last night, I had to download the Fox Sports “app” to my Man Cave TV (where I also have a Roku internet TV device) in hopes I will be able to watch LIV Golf this year.
The Fox Sports app needed to verify that I was a paying subscriber to that “X” cable provider. It didn’t charge any money (I wouldn’t have paid money to watch it).
Where do we stand with the PGA Tour’s proposed merger with LIV Golf?
In this lingering golf soap opera, the PGA Tour surprised the sports world by saying they were planning to merge with new rival LIV Golf by December 31, 2023. Yes, 2023.
We are now 14 months past that deadline.
Yet, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan recently said, “The only thing that matters to fans and the game is reunification.”
Conspiracy theory ahead – Is the PGA Tour trying to run out the clock on LIV’s top stars’ contracts?
Looking backwards, the PGA Tour’s announcement to merge with LIV Golf nearly two years ago never passed the proverbial smell test.
After failing to meet the December 31, 2023 deadline to merge with LIV Golf, the PGA Tour went out and found a financial partner in private equity manager Strategic Sports Group.
About this time last year, the SSG investment group ponied-up $1.5 billion last spring to prop-up the PGA Tour’s war chest. A similar investment amount is expected to come in the form of ownership shares for current and a few former PGA Tour players.
At the time, the PGA Tour has refused to say that the LIV Golf deal was dead. Both golf tours functioned separately once again during 2024.
The $100 million+ exclusive golf contracts for LIV Golf’s top stars like Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka will expire within the next year.
If the PGA Tour is successful at stringing-out this lingering merger with LIV Golf, several of LIV Golf’s top stars will become eligible to rejoin the PGA Tour once again in 2026.
On the other hand, the Saudi Public Investment fund (which manages hundreds of billions of Saudi oil money) has hinted that they might purchase the controlling interest of the current DP World Tour (formerly known as the European Tour). If that were to happen, the top European golfers would be able to compete for spots on the LIV Golf tour at some point.
In other words, the LIV Golf “war” with the PGA Tour would escalate if the Saudi faction doesn’t like the final merger terms and opted out.
Time to put up or shut-up for the PGA Tour and LIV Golf
The PGA Tour appears to just desire a monetary infusion from the Saudi Investment Fund to become yet another “investor” and then function as a world golf monopoly.
The LIV Golf had dreams of crushing the PGA Tour and becoming the world’s top golf tour.
After spending up to $5 billion to buy players and lose money at every single golf event since late spring 2022, perhaps the Saudi leaders are finally ready to end this very expensive golf war and make a reasonable deal soon.
In recent weeks, several new developments indicate that a deal could be coming soon. Really!???
The USGA (which governs golf in the US and Mexico) and the R&A (all other countries) recently updated their rules to invite LIV Golf’s top money winner from the previous year to play in the US Open and The Open Championship. The Masters and PGA Championships had already permitted LIV golfers to qualify for and play in their major championships.
You may have heard that the new US President is quite a big golf fan.
Over the past few years, he allowed LIV Golf to play events on some of his golf courses.
More recently, President Trump has played a private round of golf (individually) with PGA stars Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods. He was recently asked by the PGA Tour to get his new Department of Justice to issue a favorable ruling on this proposed merger.
The President (who loves being asked for his help) is trying to broker a deal between the competing golf leagues to create a win/win for professional golf and its fans.
What would a merger of these two golf leagues look like?
As I have mentioned in previous posts, the most likely result would be for LIV Golf to become the top worldwide golf organization. The PGA Tour would then rid itself of LIV Golf competition on US soil and remain the top dog here in America.
Look for pro golfers from each tour to be allowed (and encouraged) to participate in a limited number of events on the other golf tour every season.
The four golf majors would make room for more top golfers from the LIV Tour, too.
If the man behind a book titled “The Art of the Deal” has anything to do with this matter, professional golf’s top brass will be visiting the White House soon for a photo-op to celebrate a final resolution.
We can only hope so.