LIV 1.0 is official over; so what's next?
The LIV Golf season - and LIV Golf as we know it - ended Sunday. Rex Hoggard and Ryan Lavner discuss what's ahead for the league.
Video Transcript
All right, Rex, after that 42-minute opening block- we still have time to discuss LIV Golf, and you were up in Indianapolis for the regular season finale for LIV.
You spent about four days on the ground, ear to the ground, pounding the pavement for scoops.
What did you find out from what could be the final event of the LIV Golf League?
Well, it's definitely the final event of LIV Golf 1.0, so that's the one thing that I feel like I wanna start every conversation with because this version, golf but louder, is n- is over.
Like, that, that chapter has now sailed away back to Saudi Arabia with all of that money.
Whatever comes next, 2.0, I think Scott O'Neill and his team are n- now they're sort of on the clock.
He called it a condensed timeframe.
I-- compressed timeframe.
I would even say it's probably tighter than that because not only do you have to put together some sort of funding, some sort of schedule, some sort of infrastructure, you have to probably circle back around to the official world golf ranking and making sure they're on board.
But then the players come into the conversation, and I think the word he used when I asked Scott O'Neill specifically what he needed, he said he needed the critical mass of players.
That's not every single player.
That's not every single top player.
I think we can all sit here and read between some of the tea leaves.
It seems as if Jon Rahm is probably done with LIV Golf.
Now, what comes next for him is a whole different conversation, but maybe Bryson DeChambeau, DeChambeau is still on.
See, I caught myself.
You still- I caught myself.
Oh, my God.
It's such a good joke.
In 2027, you are gonna nail it.
I, I, I feel it.
I, I'm gonna get around by 2028 when he's back on the PGA Tour it'll be fine.
No, I'm kidding.
I'm kidding.
That was a joke.
Absolutely a joke.
I think he is bought in to whatever 2.0 is going to look like, but even his comments this week on the telecast, he didn't talk to the regular media, but he spoke with someone on the telecast, and he didn't sound like he had a lot of bass in his voice, to use the line that I use a lot when it comes- It was a plea, Rex.
That was a plea for those listening- Yes to give these players another chance, which I found very, very interesting.
But I think when he talks about a critical mass of players, that's probably just a handful from each team.
He's not talking about every player from each team.
He's not talking about every captain from each team.
But to make this work, he has to be able to show up next year, probably early next year, with a product and be able to convince those players that instead of taking these huge bonuses, which is the way LIV Golf and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia were able to attract players initially, he's gonna have them sign off on player equity, which i- depends on how much confidence you have in, I don't want, this business plan moving forward and whether you wanna buy into it.
I will say, and this is talking with a couple players last week, all of the pressure right now is on Scott O'Neill because if you're a ple- player, one player told me, "Look, man, Sunday night, right now when that last putt dropped on Sunday night, that's when the clock starts for all of us.
If you want to come back to the PGA Tour, it's going to be 12 months from that putt dropping on Sunday night till you can come back and play on the PGA Tour, regardless of what your status is."
And right now, not many, if any, have any status whatsoever because that was taken from them when they lost their PGA Tour membership.
If you're on the European Tour, if you're one of those players, you have your tour card through November, essentially.
So the players are in no rush whatsoever to make their decision.
So it's going to be a bit of a staring contest between Scott O'Neill and the, this lead investor, who we still don't officially know who it is, and Scott O'Neill and the players.
'Cause one of those shoes has to drop sooner or later.
I wanna ask you about the vibe from the players on the ground in Indy.
When we talked for the midweek podcast, you said it wasn't necessarily a funeral, but it felt like the, that the, that the league was in hospice care, and it was a very serious and dire situation.
And we discussed the idea that there's probably different tiers of players, right?
Like, if you're a Jon Rahm, a Joaquin Niemann, a Tyrrell Hatton, you know there are going to be options.
It might not necessarily be for the P- to the PGA Tour for all of those players, but you know that you can carve out an entire season on the DP World Tour, and you can maybe work your way back into the traditional golf ecosystem at the end.
And those players might be looking towards the exit.
If you're Bryson DeChambeau, we s- talked about the idea that, yeah, you might like the idea of having an entire tour basically carved out of your image and one that you can shape, and you can really be the headliner, which you had not been since the league launched in 2022.
And then you have a lot of the lower to middle-class players who have looked at their lives being enriched in im- unimaginable ways over these last four or five years, and yeah, you kinda wanna sign up for LIV 2.0 because it's a pretty good gravy train if you can hop aboard.
So I was curious your overall assessment of the players' tone, knowing that things are going to dramatically change.
And that, that tone changed from player to player, as you can imagine, 'cause it's all based on personality.
It's all based on where you are right now in your career.
It's all based on where you fit in that hierarchy that you just sort of outlined.
You did a really good job of outlining that.
I made a joke to Graham McDowell as he was walking to the range before the Thursday opening round, 'cause we stopped and talked briefly, and I, my comment was, "I don't wish ill will on anyone."
And that's sort of the message that I was trying to send, because I don't think Rory McIlroy ever said it best- The bots, the bots say you do though, Rex.
Yes, apparently I do.
But n- I don't think anybody wishes ill will on anyone, 'cause you and I both have friends that work for LIV Golf.
Jerry Foltz is someone that I've considered a friend a long time, and his, his livelihood, his job depends o- on this.
I'm not blind to that.
However, I told Graham, I said, "If it does go away, that means you come back to TV faster, and I'm all for that."
And he just kind of laughed, 'cause you and I have both talked about this before.
He is going to be brilliant w- when and if he decides to come back and be- become a full-time analyst.
We've already seen it at a couple of O- Open Championships.
But there is an example of a player who maybe is at a certain point in his career and is probably okay with whatever happens, one way or the other.
You have some players who are very young in their w- career, Joaquin Niemann, Michael Assaso, who just won that last event.
These are very young players who have to figure out what's next, and if that's 2.0, then you probably have to be all in.
You have to totally believe in the product.
You have to totally believe in the idea that this is going to change the game of professional golf, and I totally get that.
The other thing that sort of dawned on me, and this was a message that Scott O'Neill sort of leaned into on Wednesday during his press conference, that he wants dtente, that he wants peace in our time when it comes to golf.
And the line that I didn't write, 'cause I felt like it was maybe a little harsh, but now that I've thought back a- through it, essentially the man that kicks in your door and comes inside your house to rob it wants to sit on your couch and have a nice conversation.
That's not the way it works in this particular case, and I know that we're a couple of years removed from those first really contentious, really combative opening years, but those memories don't go away.
And if you're the PGA Tour, if you're a player who's on the PGA Tour right now, I think it's still going to be a very hard sell t- for any of those players to come back that don't do it the way Brooks Koepka did it, that don't do it the way Patrick Reed did it.
I think once Patrick Reed comes back this fall, I think he, he gets out of jail here pretty quickly going into the fall.
I think he'll be welcome back because he served his one-year suspension and earned his way back.
I guess the fascinating part, and again, I think we get here sooner or later, is to see the players that are in lockstep when it come to what Bryson's dream is, what Scott O'Neill's dream is.
Some of them, Brendan Steele, made it clear.
"I love it over here for the reasons you just said.
Like, I've made a lot of money.
I l- I, I like the schedule.
I like to travel.
They treat me really well.
I want to stay here."
There's others that are probably more than willing to move on.
I would put Jon Rahm in that category.
It seems as if Sergio Garcia was in that category.
It's going to be a mix if Scott O'Neill can hang on to that critical mass.
Complete, not compete.
That is what Scott O'Neill said that he wanted to do.
Mm-hmm.
Time for that was about five years ago.
PGA Tour doesn't want it.
DP World Tour doesn't want it.
Even the Asian Tour has now partnered with the European Tour moving forward.
Sounds like that's a fanciful notion for Scott O'Neill and LIV Golf.
Obviously, we'll be tracking the story over the remaining couple of months
