3 days ago
LIV Golf CEO on his tour's successes, obstacles and ‘purity of mission'
Scott O'Neil started as LIV Golf's new CEO in January, taking over from Greg Norman, who helped launch the breakaway tour and guided it through its first three seasons. The Saudi-funded circuit has made headway in some areas but has faced headwinds in plenty of others. O'Neil spoke with The Washington Post Friday, as LIV's Virginia event prepared to tee off at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, to discuss the state of the league, its successes and its challenges.
Some answers have been edited for brevity.
Question: When you started this job six months ago, you talked about the headwinds turning into tailwinds. Now that you're halfway through the season, what's surprised you the most? Are the obstacles bigger than you expected?
O'Neil: The biggest surprises are, No. 1, we're the good guys. I think I've been really impressed with our players, with our executive team, with the way we approach the world. You know, it's such purity of mission.
Second surprise is how cross-cultural golf is. Music, actors and athletes — you cannot turn around without finding somebody else was falling in love with the game of golf. And the numbers would play that stuff out.
In terms of the headwinds and the tailwinds, I mean, you know, sports leagues are pretty simple, right? It's competition. Television, marketing, branding, communications, sponsorship, how do you pay for it?
Competition side, good strength of field. You know, good young, emerging talent, which has been a wonderful surprise. It looks like young talent emerging will be a good storyline for us going forward. Everybody talks about the guys on top — the [Bryson DeChambeaus] and Jon Rahms — and we should celebrate them and talk about them. But that next tier is pretty wonderful.
Question: And the business side?
O'Neil: Better than what I thought. Sponsorship's off the charts. We have a good base there with Aramco and Riyadh Air. Our first wave of deals we did with Bahri and Ma'aden, and then we had the [golf-related companies] come quicker than what I've expected — Callaway and Ping, of course. We've announced two more that are coming, Salesforce and MGM. You see the boards out there.
Just an unbelievable impact in a year — year-over-year growth is going to be like 10 times. It's a pretty dramatic increase.
But yeah, things are in a good place. I feel more bullish today than I did when I walked in the door in January.
Question: How urgent is all of this? Any concerns about funding slowing down?
O'Neil: I came in really eyes wide open as to what a three-year-old business should look like. And it is — it's a three-year-old business, and that can be a really tough space. So from a pressure standpoint, I've never in my career felt any more pressure externally than I put on myself and the team. And so are expectations high? Yes.
I've worked in and around private equity for 12 years now. It's my third project in, and there's a certain expectation when you come in, and it's very consistent [with] my last two opportunities. So this isn't any different than that. But if you're asking me, do I have a sense of urgency? I have a very high motor, and I have a lot of urgency.
Question: Do you receive updates on the negotiations with the Saudi Public Investment Fund, the LIV financier, and the PGA Tour? Does that impact your short- or long-term planning?
O'Neil: No updates. I would say, there's no impact or influence. I mean, the PGA Tour seems to be going through a transition of their own, up top, and that will once again provide a new face and less scar tissue and more opportunity at the table. I think that's wonderful. We're wholly focused on our business. It's so different.
Question: LIV golfers are still not being recognized by the Official World Golf Rankings, but talks have at least resumed. What's the latest with those discussions?
O'Neil: So I've been spending regular time with Trevor Immelman, who's the new chairman [of the OWGR]. I found him very engaging, very smart, very hardworking, very balanced, fair, reasonable. And we've had several discussions, some spirited, some more plain Jane.
But I will tell you, when I talk about the ecosystem and all of us wanting what's best for the game of golf, I think I would put Trevor and the board members in that category, and some of them are direct competitors to us, which does add a bit of a complexity. But I think that we're all optimistic that we'll find a way to work within the system to make sure that we have the best, most accurate ranking system we could have.
Question: The OWGR has taken issues with some of the things that make LIV unique: smaller fields, 54-hole tournaments, no cutline. Are you considering any changes to the format?
O'Neil: We've had so many discussions. I'd rather keep those between me and Trevor. But generally, we love the format. We think, in particular, the shotgun start, I just — I've been reading about pace of play for 15 years in the media; we could do a round in four hours and 35 minutes. So I like the shotgun start quite a bit.
But are we stuck in cement on any of our changes? We're a three-year-old league. We're evolving and changing every day. I think we love the format. The players love the format. We're pretty comfortable there.
Question: And the team component? That is still core to what LIV wants to be?
O'Neil: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Question: LIV has never shared specifics but there's a wide belief that the first wave of contracts might be expiring soon. Player recruitment has certainly slowed, but I wonder if you have any concerns about either retaining players or enticing new ones to join?
O'Neil: We don't have any concerns about our players. You know, I would say that we're in a wonderful spot with players, and we don't have any fear that this will continue to be a place that players want to come.
Question: What do we make of the Fox deal midway through the season? You'll be head-to-head against the PGA Tour this week, but most of your events have been played abroad and the time difference didn't put you in prime TV spots. Five of your last seven events will be in the U.S. — will that give us a better picture of what the audience appetite is?
O'Neil: As you know, Fox is an extraordinary partner. As is ITV in the UK, as is KC Global out in Southeast Asia. So we spent a lot of time with them figuring out how we can invest [to] get the best ratings. With Fox in particular, we're in the U.S. and it's a much better measuring stick as to how we're doing. It's just, there's a complete picture, and that's one important slice of the pie that we're addressing and working on. But yeah, hopefully in the U.S., you'll see it.
We're happy to be measured and judged, like everybody else, you know? But … we look at the global view, like the global audience, how many people are watching us around the world? I mean, we're in 872 million homes. If you'd have told me that on my first day here, I would've thought you'd lost your mind — more than double from last year. We're in 120 countries.
We're actually testing some technology that takes our broadcasters in their own voice and puts it in other languages. So we're testing that the next two weeks. It'll be really fun. Arlo White in Spanish, you know? Or Korean. Or Chinese.
I guess the way we look at television is, we get somewhere between 2½ [million] to 3½ million people watching our events around the world. It's pretty good.
Question: You'd mentioned the strength of field being a positive. Obviously some guys are finishing consistently up high, but in the standings, we see some big drops, particularly after the top three and again after the top 10. That doesn't concern you?
O'Neil: The numbers would say — we spend quite a bit of time using AI and other tools at our disposal to take a look at our strength and feel good. As you can imagine, strokes-gained analysis and other tools we have at our disposal. We're pretty comfortable with where the strength of field is.
