Golf's truce is a sham – LIV is happy to go it alone, Trump-style

Telegraph

04-04-2025

Perhaps it was appropriate that, a day after President Trump announced his extraordinary tariff revolution, LIV Golf enthusiastically greeted him to this Doral resort that he owns and that, this weekend, will host the latest $25 million event.
Trump landed in his Marine One helicopter on a helipad by the ninth fairway on Thursday evening and the mood in the air was palpably that of belligerence as significant figures on the breakaway league extolled their own idea of isolationism and going it on their own.
If this is the week for the big statement, then LIV Golf is determined to prove that it has the potential to be an historic triumph if and when the mooted deal with the PGA Tour is finally called off. And at this point, the negotiations do appear to be in tatters.
Six weeks ago, Trump hosted PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund and LIV chairman, at the White House in what, on a wave of optimism, were billed as breakthrough talks in the mottled merger.
However, it has since become an open secret that the only thing that almost broke was the door of the Oval Office, as Al-Rumayyan exited feeling angry and insulted.
In the assessment of the respective assets, the PGA Tour informed the Saudis it valued LIV at $500million and, as the Saudis have already ploughed in an estimated $5billion into Al-Rumayyan's pet project, that sense of offence was maybe inevitable. Furthermore, while the PGA Tour might be considering incorporating four LIV tournaments into a redrawn schedule, Al-Rumayyan expects a show.
'He wants 14 LIV events, with 13 teams, just as there are this year,' one prominent source told Telegraph Sport. 'Since the row at the White House, he has sent a letter to the Tour demanding exactly that and they have come back with a resounding refusal. So that's it. Yasir will not back down – he will probably double down, pumping in even more investment and playing the long game. It is back to square one. LIV versus the rest.'
Nobody is declaring this publicly here at the stage for LIV's first US event of 2025, after visits to Riyadh, Adelaide, Hong Kong and Singapore. Instead, Scott O'Neil, the new LIV chief executive following the departure of Greg Norman, has asked the pros to adopt a less combative approach.
'We have to be good partners in the game of golf,' he told reporters in the enormous clubhouse here on Wednesday. 'And we have to continue to show grace. I've talked to the players quite a bit about this… all that stuff matters, especially in a game as traditionally rich as golf..'
O'Neil calls it 'a dramatic shift' in attitude and this personality overhaul has already earned the American an official invite to next week's Masters, a vote of credibility that Norman famously failed to garner in his controversial three years at the helm. (Indeed, to get through the Augusta gates to 'cheer on my guys' last year, the Australian was forced to buy a general admission ticket from the touts.)
LIV is at the table and, understandably, that internally is being portrayed as a positive. 'They have welcomed me with open arms,' O'Neil said.
Yet that does not mean peace is any closer.Anything but. That ill-tempered meeting on February 20 has raised the tensions and the hackles have followed suit, with recrimination back in play.
On Thursday, LIV staged an 'influencer event', with popular YouTubers doing battle over nine holes on the layout known as 'the Blue Monster'. It was an unashamed copy of 'the Creators Classic' held before the Players Championship at Sawgrass last month and featured many of the same internet celebrities.
The PGA Tour was not happy and dispatched memos to the likes of 'Fat Perez' and 'The Bryan Bros', warning that they could pick up bans on the US circuit. Presumably realising how pathetic this would look, the threat was dropped, but the resumption of hostilities was surely telling. The ceasefire is over. The truce is a sham.
O'Neil is not directly involved in the negotiations, but Al-Rumayyan is keeping him in the loop and his comments also indicated the willingness to move forward without the Tour's patronage.
'Do we have to do a deal? No,' O'Neil said. 'Would it be nice to do a deal? So long as we're all focused on the same thing, which is growing the game of golf. This is not my deal. I hope all goes well and does what's best for golf. If that's a deal, great. If it's not a deal, great. We're in pretty good stead.'
O'Neil's optimism is in marked contrast to the US media's perception of the strides, or otherwise, made by the upstart circuit in its four years. The pessimism has even seeped into the circus itself, with five-time major champion Brooks Koepka breaking cover.
'I think Scott's a great guy and he can lead LIV to where it needs to be, or where it should be because we are behind, to be quite fair,' he said. When asked to expand, Koepka replied: 'Behind where we should be. From bringing sponsors in to hitting the international market and the US market. It [the new TV deal] definitely helps, but we need to take that and expand it and grow it.'
That deal with Fox was heralded as hugely notable. It was always one of Norman's primary aims to sign with one of the main US TV stations and, after spending the formational years in the broadcasting shadows, LIV was finally legitimate. It long claimed it could take on the PGA Tour at its own game, but this time it could fight on the same remote control.
However, the figures have been poor over the opening quartet of events and the headlines have been predictably negative. This has annoyed O'Neil.
'Some of the news was disappointing for me to read,' O'Neil said. 'See where we were playing and the time differences. It was 2am in the morning here in the US. Look, I have no problem being judged – but not on that. Judge me this week, for sure.'
On Sunday, LIV will be on the main Fox channel, at the same time as the PGA Tour event in San Antonio is on NBC. They always wanted a level playing field and this is it.
And with Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler resting before Augusta, the Texas Open is hardly a parade of superstars; by contrast, LIV boasts names such as Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson and Koepka, so there really should be only one winner in the ratings.
Yet the PGA Tour is established and LIV and its team concept have not gained the traction anticipated. 'If we get the same viewing figures as the Tour on Sunday it would be a massive success,' an insider said. 'But even if we get half, say 700,000 viewers, that would give us something to cling on to. Otherwise there will be more queries about our future, particularly with some of the player contracts being up next year.'
That last point is another question mark flashing over LIV and its hereafter. Will Koepka and co expect the same nine-figured up-front payments to stay or will one or more seek what would be a symbolic switch back to the PGA Tour? O'Neil dismissed this concern, talking of his 'confidence that we'll have the right field here for a really long time'.
Yet as to the ratings, O'Neil will be all eyes as he weighs up changes to the product that may or may not be necessary.
'I know what the future looks like for LIV,' he said. 'It looks like Adelaide [the LIV event that attracts crowds of more than 100,000] in 14 markets. And it looks like our players are welcome, and there's more outlets for them in the majors. It looks like the Formula One of golf and as far as TV audiences go, we got 2.5 million for the Riyadh event and, like F1, we are a global sports league.
'But is this weekend important? Of course it is. This one is important in the US. Are my expectations high? They always are. But if the ratings don't hit my expectations, am I going to cry in my suit? I'm not. I really believe in what we're doing. I think we're heading in the right direction. You know, it's been a really nice, pleasant surprise how far we have moved the needle in three months. I've never seen any kind of pace like this before in my life.'
Hyperbole, maybe, but there can be no doubt that Trump would be impressed. Especially now, in these of all times. The President was whisked off to the Trump Grand Ballroom for the Gala LIV Dinner and there would have been no shortage of discussion on the top table. Tariffs and Tours and all that.
Norman's LIV replacement given 'all access' invite to Masters
Greg Norman was famously kept out in the cold by the Masters in his controversial spell as the LIV chief executive and was even forced last year to buy a ticket from the touts to watch his players. But now that the Australian has left the position, the green jackets have notably softened their stance and sent an official 'all access' invite to his predecessor.
Scott O'Neil's presence under the tree outside the Augusta National clubhouse is set to be a symbolic moment. The movers and shakers of the game gather at 'the Big Oak Tree' during the season's first major and the fact the LIV supremo will be allowed to mingle with the powerbrokers shows how much tensions have thawed, with negotiations ongoing for a peace deal between the PGA Tour and the Saudi funders of the breakaway league.
'I've been welcomed with open arms,' O'Neil said here at Trump National Doral, where the latest $25 million LIV event begins on Friday. 'I've only been here in the role for 90 days, but I text all of them [the figures that run the four majors] pretty regularly. I've done so multiple times.'
There are 12 LIV pros in the Masters field, down from 18 two years ago and 13 in 2024. Unlike the US Open and Open, Augusta has so far resisted handing LIV spots directly from its money list and is not expected to change its qualification process for next year, either. Norman was notoriously combative when demanding that his players be given a pathway to the majors, but O'Neil is purposefully remaining humble.
'I feel like we have to continue to show up and be good partners in the game of golf,' he said. 'And we have to continue to show grace. Sometimes we may be held to a different standard, but that's OK. I've talked to the players quite a bit about this… all that stuff matters, especially in a game as traditionally rich as golf. And hopefully, you've noticed in the last three months there's been a dramatic shift.'