How LIV 2.0 can learn from the mistakes of LIV 1.0

LIV Golf 1.0 — the era of big talk and bigger paychecks — is over. Whatever comes next for the breakaway tour, cut loose by Saudi Arabian funding and now on the hunt for outside investment, the days of "Golf But Louder" are done. 

Without a doubt, LIV fundamentally changed the structure of men's professional golf, forcing the PGA Tour into reworking its entire structure, schedule and financial model. LIV altered the professional arcs of some of the game's greatest players, gave others the opportunity to destroy their own reputations, and provided a pathway back to prominence for the once-lost Anthony Kim. LIV also brought the concept of sportswashing into the mainstream of the American sports conversation, forcing sports fans to decide just how much politics they were willing to accept with their sports. 

That's a hell of an impact in just a few short years, but that also leads into another LIV lesson: the impossibility of competing with the established American sports framework. Even a league funded by bottomless oil wealth ultimately couldn't compete with a vulnerable legacy organization. 

So what does that mean? Competing with the PGA Tour is a lost cause for LIV, so coexistence is now the only path forward. And if LIV is going to survive and thrive in the years to come, version 2.0 will need to learn from the mistakes of its predecessor. And oh, are there plenty of lessons to learn. 

Golf, but humbler

LIV Golf fired off the tee in 2021 with swagger, attitude and arrogance, largely mirroring the personality of firebrand Greg Norman. Longtime PGA Tour antagonists like Norman and Phil Mickelson spoke openly (and in court filings) of wanting to upend the Tour's entire business model, torching the very house in which they'd grown wealthy. That didn't sit well with Tour traditionalists, and the badass playacting came off as more silly than intimidating. You're smacking a little white ball around a field, gentlemen. Let's not pretend this is armed combat. 

Know your role

If the PGA Tour-LIV battle was a Ryder Cup, LIV would have scored some early Friday upsets, but the Tour found its footing by Saturday, and the outcome was never in doubt on Sunday. That doesn't mean LIV deserves to vanish, but it does mean LIV needs to understand its new role in golf's ecosystem. There's room and opportunity for a truly international tour, one which doesn't center on the United States. LIV can serve a worldwide golf-starved audience, even if that means sacrificing some face domestically. 

Target the PGA Tour's inefficiencies

The Tour's intense focus on American markets represents a massive opportunity for LIV Golf. More to the point, the Tour's intense focus on its best players and marquee sites presents a clear path for LIV. Domestically, LIV can target markets left behind in the PGA Tour's grand new have-and-have-not two-track plan for both players and tournament venues. And with relations warming between the two Tours — or, at least, the Tour viewing LIV as much less of a threat — there's the opportunity to develop a more viable pathway between the two tours. A lower-track PGA Tour player might find more earning opportunity on LIV, and now that LIV's existential threat is done, the Tour ought to consider opening those gates a little wider. Though the comparison isn't exact, both NASCAR and the WNBA allow their top-tier competitors to participate in other, lower leagues. An LIV-PGA crossover is logistically possible, it's just a question of the will to do so. 

Get those OWGR points

LIV's key selling point for younger players had been its massive paychecks. With that likely gone, LIV will need to demonstrate that it's a viable route to the majors — the one true benchmark for success in the game today, over and above even the PGA Tour. LIV has made steps in this direction, getting some small sums of Official World Golf Ranking points and receiving open acknowledgement from Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley at this year's Masters. LIV needs to do whatever's necessary to get as many points as possible for its competitors, and if that means more harsh relegation for underperforming players, so be it. LIV 2.0 needs to demonstrate that it's a viable league all on its own, not as some screw-you alternative to the PGA Tour. 

Don't try so hard

Right from the jump, LIV attempted to position itself as a fully formed, end-to-end league of teams, colors, iconography and legacy. As with everything LIV did, that's understandable — you don't carve out space for yourself by asking politely — but LIV's attempts at identity creation don't read as rebellious, they feel like theater kids gone wild:

Wanting to cut against the staid, starchy, stodgy tradition of golf is admirable; attempting it through choreographed dance and desperate attempts at memes ain't the right way to go. Playing golf and hanging at tournaments are both cool enough in themselves without trying to make a viral moment out of thin air. 

Go West … and East

LIV's proponents, whether internally or on social media, tend to puff up even the slightest bit of good news. But it's indisputable that, by any measure, LIV's tournaments in South Africa, Australia and South Korea have been significant successes. Ratings and attendance in the United States, not so much. That would seem to strongly suggest that LIV's future lies beyond the boundaries of America. Believe it or not, there are nations out there, and sponsors too, who are both interested in golf and also have nothing whatsoever to do with the United States. Really. It's true. 

Bryson yes, Rahm no

Although the identity of LIV's mysterious potential benefactor remains unknown, hints seem to suggest that there's a strong desire for LIV's biggest names — Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm — to remain connected with the league. That's understandable; golf is a sport of personalities, after all. DeChambeau's value is obvious; he's a YouTube star, with a potential audience of millions who aren't traditional golf fans. Rahm is a golf fan's star; while he's one of the most dynamic players in the game, he doesn't move the needle beyond golf fans in America. If LIV has to make a choice between the two, DeChambeau is the way to go. (Rahm's massive contract is likely LIV's largest current liability; getting out from under that won't be easy, but it's necessary.) 

YouTube it all

Like all golf tours, LIV has flirted with YouTube, but the new version ought to partner more with existing YouTube creators — those that aren't already aligned with the PGA Tour, that is. DeChambeau could lead the way here, allowing LIV to reach audiences who don't intersect with a traditional golf gallery. 

Ditch the politics

LIV was born political; when you're funded by an autocratic regime with decades of documented human rights violations, well, some people are going to be aligned against you from the jump. And when you align yourself with a with-us-or-against-us president by playing at his namesake golf courses, that drives off another chunk of your audience. LIV would be better served to avoid these kinds of openly political statements going forward and focus on the golf. Shut up and putt, in other words. 

Ultimately, LIV has an opportunity to rebrand and realign itself to be what it always claimed to be — more golf for more audiences. Growing the game, to coin a phrase. It's not as triumphant as toppling the PGA Tour or as glorious as standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the majors, true. But there's a way to profitability for LIV, even if that way runs very far from golf's traditional venues.