As LIV Golf prepares for the penultimate tournament of the year at the Bolingbrook Golf Course, Chicago, the league announced that it has hired General Managers for a few of its teams. Increasing diversity is said to be the main focus behind making this decision. What’s more interesting is that some of the new GMs do not even have a golf background. How’s that for a bold decision? Four out of the five new GMs come from various industries such as tennis, video games, action sports, and baseball.

In an attempt to improve the brand image, increase viewership, and make the league more global, the teams that have hired new GMs are Legion XIII, Ripper GC, Stinger GC, Iron Heads GC, and Cleeks GC. LIV Golf’s Executive Vice President and Head of Team Business Operations Katie O’Reilly said that they are aiming for “long-term growth of LIV Golf,” hence the decision.

Who are the new LIV Golf recruits?

Swedish Jonas Mårtensson, former CEO of Mojang Games, who developed the most-sold game of all time, Minecraft, joined Cleeks FC as their new GM. “What I found really interesting is I can use my experience in building a brand and a franchise. For me, that part was the most interesting part. Building a brand from scratch and a completely new concept in golf,” Mårtensson said.

He is very keen about being a part of the LIV squad and says that most people still don’t know much about the Saudi-funded league. “We need the league to be successful and the league needs the teams to be successful. It’s obviously still a new concept. A lot of the golf world doesn’t really know the ins and outs of LIV yet. They’ve heard of it but haven’t grasped the true team concept of it,” said the new Cleeks GM as per Sports Business Journal.

Shifting our focus now to Iron Head GC, former LA Dodgers, and Gen.G Esports executive Martin E. Kim took the rein. Having worked with Untamed Planet, ESPN, and more, Australian Nick Adams took the GM position at the Ripper GC. If it was not diverse enough already, Richard Glover, formerly with ATP Tour and Cricket South Africa, brings 20 years of experience as the GM of Stinger GC. The only member here with golf experience, is Jeff Koski, who was Senior Vice President of Golf at SPORTFIVE. He helped steer Jon Rahm‘s career and has been running Legion XIII since January. Koski is now the full-time GM of Rahm’s team.

LIV Golf has had its share of wins and losses throughout its three seasons. PGA Tour pros and fans have called out LIV Golf a lot. Moments like LIV golfers winning the majors and the success LIV saw in Australia have been special. But lately, things have been somewhat hard too, and the primary concern is viewership.

Sports TV Ratings took it to X to share LIV Golf’s viewership numbers. Back in August on CW, LIV Golf Greenbrier’s viewership numbers were below average, to say the least. On Saturday, there were just 136,000 viewers, with a slight relief on Sunday, garnering 165,000 views. What’s more interesting is that the new sport on the block, pickleball, gained more viewers than LIV.

Well, apart from these, LIV Golf also had a little recruitment drive back in the month of April.

Who did LIV Golf recruit in April?

LIV Golf followed a similar recruitment in April when it hired new executives. According to Norman, this was done so that the league remains “laser-focused on the league’s long-term future, supporting the game, and attracting more fans to the sport that we love.”

LIV Golf introduced a total of five top-level executive positions in April. The position of CFO was given to David Philips, and Ross Hallett became the EVP, Head of Events. On the business operations side, Katie O’Reilly was named the EVP. Additionally, Tim Taylor (leading the London office) and Pam Sacree (Head of HR) were based in LIV Golf’s New York and London.

Only time will tell if the decisions made by Greg Norman will work in favor of the league. Also, there have already been talks about a merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf; however, that seems unlikely now since there has been no positive update about it. Do you think hiring GMs from non-golf managers and enhancing diversity will help LIV Golf achieve its goals?