As Failed LIV Deal Threatens to Undo Bryson DeChambeau’s Hard Work, Greg Norman & Co. Get Heavy Backlash From Golf World

June seemed to be going well for Greg Norman. A win at the 2024 U.S. Open by Bryson DeChambeau, the captain of Crushers GC, was followed by a record attendance at the league’s event in America. Fate, however, had other plans for the CEO of LIV Golf. His joy was something that wasn’t destined to last long. Enter Caffeine TV with some shocking news.

The sports streaming website dished out a surprising update on Wednesday, June 26. The platform announced how it would end its service, all the while citing reasons of non-profitability. A tweet about the same was posted by Josh Carpenter, a golf writer for Sports Business Journal, as he reshared the announcement Caffeine TV put up on their website. He did so while recounting how LIV Golf had, earlier this year, signed a deal with them to stream its Friday rounds.

In February, the Saudi-backed League joined hands with Caffeine to carry the circuit’s pre- and post-round shows, podcasts, and other affiliated programming, along with live tournament play. Although the details of the agreement were not made public, reports back then suggested that it be at least through the end of the current season.

The news, meanwhile, comes as nothing short of a nightmare for Norman and Co. Especially after ‘America’s favorite’ Bryson DeChambeau won at Pinehurst No. 2. He did so while carding a figure of 6-under 274 with scores of 67-69-67-71 over the four rounds. That’s not all. The win by the LIV Golf Pro might have also been one of the factors that helped break the breakaway league record of a whopping 40,000 spectators flocking to the Nashville event over the three days. This also included the 14,454 people who bought the tickets on Saturday and Sunday.

But if you think the bad news for the Norman-led circuit ended there, then you’re sorely wrong. Even many in the golf world came forward to take turns bashing the PIF-funded league as they dished out various comments under the tweet.

Netizens issue jabs at LIV Golf and Caffeine TV

61 million monthly users and 4 million per day. These are the numbers that Caffeine TV made public when they announced their intention to shut themselves down. Moreover, they also pointed out how they failed to make a profit despite having a great impact on the community. A couple of users on X, as a result, took to make fun of LIV Golf’s streaming service as they commented, “I thought they had 65 bajillion subscribers?!” and “If 4 million daily users & 60+ million monthly doesn’t make you profitable then you have bigger problems.” Another follower took to mention how “@livgolf_league was their death knell.” The website had, during the announcement, also revealed how they have 200 sports partners across 17 sports.

The Saudi-backed league had, ahead of the Miami event, provided the combined global viewership totals for its tournaments. The reports mentioned how the Mexico event totaled 3.51 million viewers on both YouTube and LIV Golf+, as opposed to the 2023 edition, which just saw 1.36 million. Similarly, the tournaments in Las Vegas, Jeddah, and Hong Kong raked in a total of 3.03 million, 2.25 million, and 2.41 million viewers, respectively. Many in the community alluded to the same while responding with the likes of comments such as, “guessing the LIV viewers wasn’t enough” and “now where will the billion people that watch LIV on there go?!?!”

Some followers even went ahead to mention, “Less TV. So they can spend more time with their family.” Maybe they were alluding to the comments Jon Rahm made in 2023 when he joined LIV Golf: “I have a duty to my family to give them the best opportunities and the most amount of resources possible.” Or maybe they were just taking a poke at LIV Golf as a whole!