Ever since its inception, LIV Golf has positioned itself as an alternative to the PGA Tour. With billions of dollars in backing from the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), it lured some of the biggest names in golf, promising a fresh take on the sport and eye-popping paychecks. The goal? Shake things up and challenge the traditional tour with an all-new league. But now the reality is setting in—and it’s not pretty.

The biggest hit to LIV’s legitimacy didn’t come from a TV rating (we’ll get to that later). It came straight from Rory McIlroy, one of LIV’s most vocal critics-turned-moderates. Speaking at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, McIlroy dropped a statement that sent shockwaves through the golf world: “I think the narrative around golf, I wouldn’t say needs a deal, I think the narrative around golf would welcome a deal in terms of just having all the best players together again. But I don’t think the PGA Tour needs a deal.”

This statement is a complete reversal from his earlier stance, where he pushed hard for unification. Just months ago, he argued that keeping LIV and the PGA Tour separate was bad for the sport. Now, he’s acknowledging that the PGA Tour is doing just fine without LIV. And he’s not the only one.

Golf insiders have been closely watching the changing dynamics in the sport, and many believe this shift in attitude is directly linked to LIV Golf’s embarrassing struggle to attract an audience. On a recent episode of The Fried Egg Golf podcast, co-host Andy Johnson pointed out the brutal truth that can no longer be ignored: “(They have) spent five billion dollars, but, like, this isn’t worth… it’s worth, like, nothing.” Johnson then took it a step further, describing how utterly insignificant LIV’s product has become in the eyes of golf fans: “Nobody gives two sh*ts about watching LIV outside of a small handful of a loud minority online.”

This sentiment was reinforced by the dismal TV ratings that exposed LIV Golf’s irrelevance. When official numbers for one of LIV’s U.S. broadcasts came out, the reaction across the golf world was one of pure disbelief. The total number of viewers? 12,000. Johnson didn’t hold back in his assessment: “That rating coming out of 12,000 people was so pathetic, so extraordinarily like, extraordinarily pathetic.”

This was supposed to be LIV Golf’s big moment—a revamped schedule, a primetime slot for American audiences, and another year of high-profile names in the field. But instead of gaining momentum, the numbers confirmed the worst fears of LIV’s critics: The fans just don’t care.

Greg Norman’s LIV vision is falling apart

For months, Rory McIlroy had been one of the leading figures pushing for a merger, believing that the sport needed its best players competing together. His stance put him at odds with Jordan Spieth, who consistently argued that the PGA Tour didn’t need LIV or its Saudi-backed money to thrive.

Their disagreement was so intense that McIlroy reportedly left a players’ group chat over it. Yet now, at Bay Hill, McIlroy essentially echoed Spieth’s position. And what’s the reason for this shift? The PGA Tour has found financial stability through its Strategic Sports Group (SSG) investment, and LIV has failed to prove its worth. Even McIlroy, despite still supporting the idea of all the top players competing together, admitted that negotiations aren’t going anywhere: “It takes two to tango. So if one party is willing and ready and the other isn’t, it sort of makes it tough.”

That one sentence sums up the current state of negotiations. The PGA Tour, now backed by a legitimate private investment group, has little urgency to finalize a deal with PIF. Meanwhile, LIV’s backers are in an impossible position. This is the core problem. The PIF has poured billions into LIV Golf, but nobody is watching. It doesn’t matter how much they’ve spent—if fans aren’t tuning in, there’s no long-term future. And that’s exactly why McIlroy, Spieth, and other PGA Tour insiders no longer see LIV as a necessity.

Greg Norman’s dream was to create a golf league that would rival and eventually replace the PGA Tour. Instead, it has become a failed investment with no clear path forward.

Yes, LIV still has some of golf’s biggest stars, and yes, it has an unlimited budget from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. But without fans, TV ratings, or commercial success, the league has little value.