Why LIV Golf Doesn’t Need PGA Tour for Survival; Greg Norman’s Confidence Offers the Ultimate Answer

Like it or not, there is a distinct possibility that LIV Golf and the PGA Tour will continue to go in separate directions longer than anticipated. Even beyond the timeframe that DP World Tour CEO Guy Kinnings offered, which was 2026. The reason is not that the two have separate interests or that unification will unearth another set of buried problems. Rather, Greg Norman highlights that LIV might have found a way to survive without the PGA Tour. 

The idea was first floated by Cameron Smith of Ripper GC. The Aussie captain was overwhelmed with the support he received in Adelaide. Fans flocked around the all-Australian Ripper GC during their playoffs. The idea was to recreate it to a certain extent across all teams. Norman believes that’s a sustainable business model, even though LIV has struggled to attract traditional fans to the screen.

Greg Norman lifts the curtain on his grand plans

Norman hinted that even though not all teams have a binding thread, they are in the process of figuring out how to best utilize the ones that do. Like the all-Latin American Torque GC or all-South African Stinger GC. 

“Man United owns their stadium. Indian Premier League, they own their stadiums. NFL, they own their stadiums. Think about LIV owning all their own golf courses, each team having a home venue and they host. And now you can build out around that.”

Technically, it’s not correct. Not all EPL clubs exclusively own their stadiums; ownership and share are more complicated than that. As for the IPL, no team owns its stadiums. Rather, it’s the respective state board that controls them. But let’s not lose Norman’s point in the technicalities. 

The references to EPL and IPL are hard to miss. Yasir Al-Rumayyan is already heavily invested in Newcastle United. Reports also indicated that PIF is targeting an investment in IPL as well. Any cricket fan will tell you that IPL is pure entertainment with all its positive and negative baggage. 

Clearly, LIV wants to double down on its ‘Golf but louder’ slogan, and Adelaide gave them the ‘blueprint’ that Norman was looking for. Not just a sport, but ‘Sports and entertainment’, Norman reiterated. 

In the Shark’s world, LIV will tour the globe with the best players in the world—the ones he can accumulate—and eventually create its own homegrown stars. That also explains the knocking on the doors of Ludvig Aberg more than once. Hence, bringing a David Puig or a Caleb Surrat into the fold. While that takes care of the product, next comes the sales pitch. Greg Norman also divulged some clues into how he thinks LIV can be sustainable in the long term.

How LIV will generate revenue

Haslina Amin for Bloomberg asked, “There are opinions out there suggesting that people are not really tuning in and watching live. How do you respond to that?”

“What’s the definition of tuning in?” Norman countered. 

Definitions are a slippery slope. Shark offered some nuance: “To an 18-year-old, to a 25-year-old, tuning in may be 12 seconds on the phone. That to me is a market that’s enormously wealthy, right?” LIV is looking beyond the traditional source of revenue for sports, which is TV rights. The PGA Tour has a TV deal with NBC and CBS and a streaming partnership with ESPN, which roughly stands at $700 million annually.

LIV, for lack of a better option, had to settle with CW. So, the window of opportunity to watch the breakaway league on TV is very slim. They have so far relied on LIV Golf Plus. and, most recently, struck a deal with Caffeine. But more than that, Norman hints that they are looking at big corporations for different and innovative revenue streams.

Take the partnership with Google, for example. With generative AI, LIV Golf Plus will feature advanced statistics, 3D course mapping, virtual caddy POVs, and real-time data. Norman is looking at a younger demographic that is tech-savvy and wants to utilize that to the fullest. Eventually, Norman hopes to attract large corporations as franchise team owners. That might be a long dream wafting on the horizon.

Also of note are Phil Mickelson’s comments at the Pat McAfee show. According to Lefty, countries are willing to pay LIV to host an event. Mostly, that sentiment arose after LIV Adelaide’s huge economic impact. Last year, the event pumped $65 million into the state’s economy. Apparently, LIV Golf Singapore happened this year at the tourism board’s request. And Norman indicates that the Philippines might dot the map soon.

“He’s [Yasir Al-Rumayyan] invested billions of dollars into this. And we are starting to see the creation of an ROI within this. So we’re going to stay focused over here.” PIF and Strategic Sports Group, the consortium of billionaire sports team owners, share one thing in common. They focus on growing the sport as much as growing revenue. There is certainly a future where they both work separately on the same project, with two different products.