Schedule, team composition and TV rights. Key issues for LIV Golf in 2023

LIV Golf has had its inaugural season for a while now, and now preparations for the next one should be in full swing. The opening event of the 2023 edition in Mexico should take place in the second half of February. By then, the organizers, led by Greg Norman, should have answered several key questions that are still in the fog.

“Golf but louder,” or “louder golf”. This is one of the slogans with which the LIV Golf project has burst onto the world golf scene. Although the start of the second season is only a few weeks away, there is still silence around the rather crucial points of the new professional circuit.

INCOMPLETE PROGRAMME

One of the most important things is the publication of the complete schedule of the LIV Golf series for the 2023 edition. The management of the competition has previously announced that the second season will have a total of fourteen events, but so far only seven are officially known.

LIV GOLF 2023 SCHEDULE

LIV Golf Mayakoba
24.-February 26 – Riviera Maya, Mexico

LIV Golf Tucson
17. – March 19 – Marana, Arizona

LIV Golf Adelaide
21. – April 23 – Adelaide, Australia

LIV Golf Singapore
28. – April 30 – Sentosa, Singapore

LIV Golf Tulsa
12. – May 14 – Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

LIV Golf Valderrama
30. june – July 2 – Sotogrande, Cadiz, Spain

LIV Golf Greenbrier
4.-6. august – White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia

The original goal was for both the schedule and team rosters to be finalized by the end of 2022. It is quite realistic that in some cases the circuit will return to a course that was played last year. The LIV previously announced that the 2023 season will run from February to September and will not conflict with majors, international team events or traditional PGA Tour tournaments.

TEAM LINE-UPS

Here again, LIV fans waited in vain for new information at the end of 2022. Team play is one of the key innovative aspects of what the LIV wants to dazzle the professional golf world with. Everything in the future is supposed to work on the Formula 1 principle, where a big corporate firm or a billionaire will own and finance their team.

For now, however, the team names on the official LIV website remain the same as last year – HY Flayers, Smash, Niblicks, Majestick, Fireballs, Cleeks, Iron Heads, Punch, Crushers, Torque, Stinger and 4 Aces, which won a $50 million bonus for winning the season overall in the first season.

There were no changes to the rosters of the various teams, which were expected to undergo several changes for the 2023 season. The only one officially announced so far was the departure of Talor Gooch from the 4 Aces, who was replaced by Peter Uihlein. This was just two days after the final tournament of the 2022 season and the triumph of 4 Aces.

There was also talk of possible new player signings to move from the PGA Tour to the LIV. However, nothing official has been released yet. In addition, there is still an extremely tense atmosphere between the two venues.

TV CONTRACT

“We are close to a big signing,” reported LIV representatives not long after the 2022 edition, which culminated in a team tournament in Miami in early October.

“We have to get on TV, we have to have corporate partners. Those are the milestones we have to achieve by next year,” former LIV chief operating officer Atul Khosla told GolfWeek in October. However, he reportedly stepped down from the position at the end of the 2022 calendar year, sparking public speculation that not everything was going according to plan.

Last season, LIV Golf streamed its events for free on the league’s official website and YouTube channel. At the same time, the LIV also had 20 international partners who streamed events in 160 different countries. Until recently, there was speculation that LIV would reach a deal to broadcast tournaments with Fox Sports. In addition, the golf company would be responsible for paying the production costs.

Since then, however, there has been silence on this issue as well. Other American stations such as CBS, ESPN or NBC broadcast PGA Tour tournaments, so it is assumed that they will not be interested in LIV Golf. The same applies to Amazon or Apple, which were previously identified as possible broadcasters of the LIV Golf series.

The question is whether a broadcast contract or free-to-air tournaments on public platforms is better for LIV in terms of attractiveness and accessibility. In both respects, it would probably have to continue to fund the production of LIV broadcasts. Experts tend to lean towards the first option.

It has been put on the air that a broadcasting contract, especially on the American continent, would greatly contribute to the legitimacy of the whole competition, which is still condemned by a large part of the (mainly American) population. One of the main reasons for this is the funding for LIV that flows from public investment funds from Saudi Arabia.

Source: LIV Golf, GolfWeek