For all of the controversy and attention that PGA\u002Drival LIV generated, it hasn’t demonstrated yet that there’s an audience for its events
It made for a particularly surreal scene in what has been a surreal year for professional golf. Koepka and Uihlein were battling over the biggest payday in the sport’s history — Dustin Johnson had already clinched the first-place season-long prize of US$18 million — and, given the atmosphere, they might as well have been playing each other for a friendly ten bucks a hole.
By June, though, the lure of huge riches had overcome a lot of fears. Major winners Graeme McDowell and Sergio Garcia were in the field for the inaugural LIV event in London, alongside Ryder Cup teammates Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter. Then came the bombshell entry of Dustin Johnson, the American star who gave LIV its highest-ranked golfer. He was 13in the world rankings at the time.
Amid all the off-course shenanigans, the rumours of who might jump and who was resisting a wooing, it became evident that far more people were talking and writing about LIV as golf’s great disruptor than were actually paying attention to the disruption. It didn’t have a television deal in the United States or the United Kingdom, where golf broadcasters were aligned with the PGA Tour, and so made its broadcasts available on YouTube worldwide.