The future of golf, specifically LIV Golf, is up in the air. This merger, should it ever come to fruition, between PIF and the PGA Tour, will change things. It’s only a question of how much. PIF has funded LIV for its entirety, but with them merging with the PGA Tour, there’s no telling what LIV looks like. However, new CEO Scott O’Neil has an idea.
LIV Golf looks like F1 Racing in an ideal future
Scott O’Neil said during a fireside chat that he believes the future of LIV Golf is more like F1 Racing. He wants tournaments, which are already louder and more boisterous than PGA Tour outings, to emulate the chaotic race day vibe.
“The golf is who we are, but it’s really about the festival around golf that makes us different. You can bring your family, you can bring a date, you can bring friends,” he said via NBC Sports. O’Neil said that F1 is the only truly global sport, and he compared the pre-tournament driven range at an LIV tournament to what it’s like at an F1 pit.
In Miami for an event, the tour held music, art, and food festivals to ensure the presence of “something for everyone,” O’Neil said. The tour is in Singapore this weekend for its first trip there, and the tournament will feature a live DJ, something the PGA Tour has never done.
This is all in service of reaching a broader audience, which is something O’Neil, who took over for Greg Norman, believes they’ve done. Per the CEO, 30% of attendees at LIV tournaments said it was their first time at a golf event. He also said that the average age of an attendee is 15 years younger than other sporting events. “So in terms of reaching a new audience, introducing more people to the game, I think we’re a pretty interesting study, alright,” he added.
LIV Golf’s future may not be totally certain, but O’Neil believes they’re on to something now and that they can and should continue adapting to become the best product for the sport they can be. That includes emulating a totally different, completely unrelated sport.
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