LIV Golf Chicago: Phil Mickelson’s Jab Against ‘Delusion’ Critics Come True as $25M Event Promises a Succes

That LIV Golf created a disruption is an accepted reality. Even Phil Mickelson, one of the very first to jump ship, has no qualms about it. Some fans have ‘delusions’ about the current state of pro golf because of the disruption. But Lefty vehemently argued that it was necessary.

The course that the PGA Tour was on needed rerouting. Mickelson cited two points. One is the average age group. Speaking from Chicago last month, Lefty claimed that LIV Golf has brought the average age of spectators down from 60-65 to 40-45. The influx of youth – thanks to LIV’s much-debated blaring music, booze, DJs, and pre-event shows – has successfully turned the table.

LIV Golf Adelaide was a resounding success. LIV London and Nashville trail Down Under. In fact, the $25-purse LIV Golf Chicago doesn’t lag far behind either. The tickets have mostly been sold out. There is no place in the Pro-Am. The same goes for Birdie Shack, Gallery Club, Club 54, and the 18th green chalet on Day 3 pass. Individual day tickets are still available but filling very fast.

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The fact that there is a guaranteed appearance of certain players ensures who you are going to see regardless of when you buy the tickets. The contracts bind LIV golfers to tee up in all 14 tournaments unless they are injured, a factor that the six-time major champion highlighted.

“So now when you are Hong Kong and you sign a deal to have LIV Golf come, you know who you’re getting. You know who’s playing there,” Phil Mickelson said a month back. The demand for tickets also has another facet. 

Norman was ridiculed severely for picking Bolingbrook as the venue. It’s not a major championship-level course in any way. Many even doubted if it would play at the level of a PGA Tour course. That still remains to be seen.

But the fast-selling tickets leave no doubt that people are still eager to catch Jon Rahm, Joaquin Niemann, and Bryson Dechambeau at the last individual tournament of the season. Phil Mickelson also offered another upside: that LIV Golf is slowly transcending beyond the current audience base.

Golf needs non–playing fans too: Phil Mickelson

Lefty argued that golf has to find an audience beyond the playing audience. Taking the example of the Chicago Bears, Phil Mickelson said, “The NFL has transcended to a point where many of their fans do not participate but they love to watch. Golf is a unique sport in that almost all of our viewers are participants and play the game. We haven’t as a sport over the 30, 40 years that I’ve been a part of professional golf transcended out of that into the arena of people that don’t necessarily play or participate.”

The HyFlyers captain believed the team aspect of LIV Golf has the potential to change it. But there is also a downside to that. Take LIV Golf Adelaide or even LIV London. Dean Burmester asked one fan to ‘shut the f**k up’ while he was trying to hit the ball. A golf audience is expected to know when to let the pros do their job. A non-golf spectator? Doubtful.

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Even Jon Rahm and his caddie recently had a fracas in London. So, it’s still an open question if professionals are willing to tee up in that environment for 14 weeks a year. The answer is placed somewhere in the future when LIV Golf will fledge into its fullest potential, as Greg Norman and Phil Mickelson dream.