LIV Golf chief fires huge message as venue partner delivers disruption note

Daily Record

24-07-2025

LIV Golf CEO doesn't know where to begin in terms of huge momentum speak and hints more progress with Majors
LIV Golf CEO Scott O'Neill insists he can't be more excited with where the Tour is heading.
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The Saudi-backed series is in the midst of their fourth year of tournaments since the controversial start-up and first event at Centurion in 2022.
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LIV are currently in England with a new deal agreed to stage the UK event at JCB Golf and Country Club in Staffordshire through 2026.
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O'Neil, in his first year after taking over from Greg Norman, has outlined his early feelings and is bursting with enthusiasm for the future.
Speaking at a press conference today to make the announcement over the course arrangement, he said: 'For those of us, I see plenty of my colleagues in the back, and on behalf of them, I can tell you how amazing this experience is to be part of revolutionising and changing the world of golf.
'The chance to get amazing players throughout the 54-person field and be able to take them around the world to grow the game of golf is quite a treat.
'About three-quarters into my first year as CEO of LIV Golf and coming in, one thing I noticed really quickly was the incredible players. That's the one thing. What I think separates us a bit is we have a bit of personality and a bit of flair and we bring some fun to golf. That's the first thing.
'The second thing I noticed was it's global. You have some of the best golf over the last, I guess since Tiger, 20 years, it's been played inside the US.
'The growth of the game and the love of this game is around the world. So for us to be able to take it around the world gives us a lot of opportunity.
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'In terms of momentum, it's almost where can you possibly begin. From a television distribution end, we added FOX and ITV here in the UK. We're now in 125 countries around the world. Having players from 18 different countries, it's nice to be able to travel and go home and be home.
'We were in Spain two weeks ago and our press conferences were held in Spanish. We were in Korea and our press conferences were held in Korean. It's pretty special to see this all materialise.
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'So we're now in almost 900 million homes around the world for each of our broadcasts. From a sponsorship end, hopefully, you've seen the HSBC announcement. It's one of several new partners. We have exponentially grown our sponsorship base which has been great. I'm building on Salesforce and Aramco before that. Callaway and Ping have come on.
'In terms of the impact we're having, we continue to drive impact and put more clubs in kids' hands, drive sustainability efforts around the world. That's been at least a passion point for a lot of us.
'And from a marketing position, you've seen us move from 'golf but louder' to 'long LIV Golf,' which is more than just a tag line. It's actually how we see ourselves as part of this golf ecosystem.
'To that end, you've seen pretty good strides. We've had open pathways to two of the majors this year, between the US Open and the Open Championship, which is really gracious of those two leaders, Mark Darbon and Mike Whan. And I think you'll continue to see progress there. I will tell you, the future is really bright and I can't be any more excited for what's coming.'
Graeme Macdonald, CEO of JCB, added: 'When we set out on this journey back in 2013, our ambition was to build a tournament venue and host world-class players, the best players in the world here in Staffordshire. Last year when we had our inaugural LIV Golf by JCB event we certainly fulfilled that ambition.
'We did listen to feedback from both the LIV team and the players and we've made a big investment over the last 12 months. We've made a lot of modifications, improvements to the course, and we really do value the relationship we have with LIV. I do believe that we share a lot of the same core principles. Innovation, disruption. Both of us love to disrupt very traditional industries, us with the construction equipment industry and you with the golf industry and I think that brings lots of new people into this wonderful sport.'