Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Has anyone seen LIV Golf recently?
The upstart rival to the PGA Tour has literally vanished from the professional golf picture in 2025.
LIV Golf has played just four events this year. None have been contested in the United States.
After Sunday’s Houston Open, the PGA Tour has already conducted 14 events in 2025. Two tournaments were played in Hawaii, one in Mexico, and another in Puerto Rico.
Meanwhile, LIV Golf’s first two events were played in February (Saudi Arabia and Australia). Two more LIV tournaments were conducted in March (Hong Kong and Singapore).
Television ratings in the US for the four LIV Golf events have been abysmal.
The number of people watching LIV Golf’s first four tournaments this year has barely exceeded those watching a 1AM test pattern on your local TV station.
OK, it’s not quite that bad.
When a “live” sports program on a national network fails to attract at least 100,000 viewers, your product is in big trouble.
Only the very deep pockets of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund continue to bail-out this economic sports disaster
LIV Golf is funded by the $1 trillion Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF). Since LIV Golf came on the scene in 2022, the Saudi PIF has spent an estimated $4 to 5 billion without a return on that investment.
OK, that represents a measly 1/2% of the total assets in the massive Saudi Arabian cash pile. We know that the goal for LIV Golf was for the Saudi PIF to buy enough of the top professional golfers and create the top golf league in the world.
LIV Golf definitely spent plenty to acquire some of the top golfers.
Let’s check the leaderboard!
$300 million – Jon Rahm
$200 million – Phil Mickelson
$150 million – Dustin Johnson
$125 million – Bryson DeChambeau
$100 million – Brooks Koepka
$100 million – Cam Smith
The guaranteed contracts for those six golfers totals almost $1 billion.
The next tier of former PGA stars included famous names like Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed, Bubba Watson, and Lee Westwood. They required millions in signing bonuses, too.
In Roman Numerals, LIV equals 54
There are currently 52 regular members of the LIV Golf league.
They participate individually and as part of 13 teams of four golfers apiece at tournaments. Two other players compete as lone wolves to round-out the 54-player field for each 54-hole tournament.
In addition to those big signing bonuses, every golfer participating in LIV Golf tournaments is competing for a generous prize payout of $20 million. Prior to LIV Golf’s arrival, PGA Tour events had an average payout of about $6 million per week.
The winning golfer of a LIV Tournament takes home $4 million. Even the last place finisher earns at least $50,000.
An additional $5 million prize pool is paid to the top three teams after the final round. The winning team of four golfers will split $3 million. The runner-up team splits $1.5 million, and the third place golf quartet will divvy-up $500,000.
LIV will never earn money, but the league needs more golf fans to watch it
The owners of LIV Golf must know by now that the league is never going to earn a profit. Losing more than $1 billion per year does not seem to faze the Saudi PIF.
LIV’s backers want the league to rise in popularity worldwide. That’s where television comes in.
After failing to attract a significant viewership on its You Tube channel during its initial season in 2022, LIV Golf partnered with the CW Network during 2023 and 2024.
The first round (played on Fridays) was not telecast on the CW Network but was carried online via the CW app.
Weekly viewership for LIV Golf on the CW Network averaged about a few hundred thousand fans. The LIV Golf audience was about 10% of the rival PGA Tour on CBS or NBC.
After two seasons, the CW Network opted to exercise an option to cancel its LIV Golf coverage after the 2024 golf season ended.
This year, LIV Golf inked a new deal with Fox Sports.
As covered here in a previous post, the move to Fox Sports in 2025 seemed to signal a positive move.
It hasn’t been. At least not before this week.
Even if a major US city did not have a CW Network affiliate to watch LIV Golf, fans could find each round via the internet utilizing the CW App.
With the new Fox Sports arrangement in 2025, viewers are being asked to switch between FS1, FS2, FOX, and the Fox Sports app to watch LIV Golf events.
Following LIV Golf on Fox is like trying to watch a ping-pong match
Golf Channel (which is owned by NBC Universal) has carved-out a niche for itself by providing early round action for almost every weekly PGA Tour event.
You can count on Golf Channel beginning at around 11AM Central time every weekend.
Around 2PM on Saturday and Sunday, CBS or NBC will take the baton and follow the tournament leaders until they complete their round.
Prior to its first season, LIV Golf tried to court Golf Channel to cover its tournaments. The executives at NBC Sports did not want to risk losing its valuable relationship with the PGA Tour by televising golf tournaments of the upstart LIV Golf league.
A reluctance of some prominent American sponsors to affiliate their products with LIV Golf helped to make the Golf Channel’s decision to “pass” much easier.
As LIV Golf plays its first tournament of the year on American soil this Friday in Miami, you may need your own personal scorecard to locate the daily television coverage on the Fox networks.
On Friday, the opening hours (11AM CDT to 1PM) will be televised only on the Fox Sports App. Beginning at 1PM this Friday, viewers much switch over to FOX television affiliates to watch the conclusion of coverage of the first round.
Saturday’s LIV Golf on Fox begins at 10AM CDT only on the Fox Sports App. At 1PM Saturday, viewers must use their remote control to shift gears and find FS1 (assuming it is available on your cable television system).
Sunday’s final round begins at 11AM CDT on the Fox Sports App. At 1PM, it’s time to change your channel to a local FOX television affiliate for the remaining two hours of the broadcast.
This week will be a big test for LIV Golf on American television
LIV Golf’s tournament in Miami (a 3-day event beginning Friday) will feature more well known golfers than this week’s PGA Tour event in San Antonio.
If LIV Golf is going to make a statement about its relevancy on American television, it must come this weekend.
The PGA Tour’s Valero Texas Open has a relatively watered-down field. Many of the PGA Tour’s top money earners are taking this week off to prepare for The Masters in Augusta, Georgia. Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, and Victor Hovland are among those taking the week off.
Top names in this week’s San Antonio PGA stop include Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay, Justin Rose, Rickie Fowler, and Ludvig Aberg.
At the LIV Golf Miami tournament, golf viewers will be able to see major champions such as Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Sergio Garcia, and, of course, the now 54-year old Phil Mickelson.
From my perspective, LIV Golf has the advantage this week when it comes to having a more interesting golf field for television viewers.
This week’s PGA Tour event in San Antonio will be covered by Golf Channel (Thursday, Friday, and early coverage Saturday and Sunday) with NBC handling Saturday and Sunday afternoon.
The TV coverage advantage definitely is with the PGA Tour. Viewers are accustomed to Golf Channel and NBC working in tandem many weeks.
In 2025, the PGA Tour’s television ratings have rebounded slightly. Most events being covered by CBS and NBC are averaging about two million viewers for the final round on Sunday afternoons.
This week, LIV Golf has a chance to take a big percentage of those viewers with a competitive tournament field playing on the famed Doral Country Club in Miami.
You might say that LIV Golf has the ball teed-up for them this weekend as they compete with a weaker PGA Tour field in Texas.
We are going to finally see whether home viewers actually care about the LIV Golf product by the end of this week.
Anything less than 500,000 viewers on FOX over the weekend is going to be a major disappointment for the Saudi owners of LIV Golf.
The upstart golf league’s television ratings must escape from a deep sand trap beginning this week in order to remain a viable sports competitor.