From Australia to the Proposed Alliance With the PGA Tour, LIV Golf's Business Is on the Rise

HERTFORDSHIRE, England — Every successful company, business or organization can point to a time in their history, a seminal movement if you will, that buoys the business and sends it on a trajectory of success.

For LIV Golf, that occurred twice in its short history.

The first came in Australia at LIV Golf Adelaide in late April. With overwhelming support from the area, including local government, reportedly 77,000 fans attended the three-day event in a golf-starved country.

It didn’t hurt that reigning British Open champion, Australian Cam Smith, was part of the 48-player entourage.

LIV Golf also debuted its first stadium hole, mimicking a model that has been successful at the PGA Tour's WM Phoenix Open, with crowds and interest massive as well, leading to interest from potential sponsors.

“It felt like that 'we've arrived' kind of moment for LIV,” Talor Gooch said of his winning trip to Australia. “All the backing, all the support, all the fanfare, all the energy, it was just one of the coolest events I've ever been a part of throughout my professional career.”

Gooch was not wrong, as the look at feel in Adelaide was supported by the Premier of South Australia Peter Malinauskas and set a standard which now is part of how LIV progresses. Afterward, LIV started supplying bid packages to potential venues that were interested in a LIV event.

The second surge came not on the golf course but on CNBC, when previous rivals PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and Yasir Al-Rumayyan of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia announced an alliance.

That framework agreement that was announced on June 6 opened the doors to many interested parties, be it potential sponsors, vendors or venues who saw the war as being over.

“That's opened up the conversations for people all around the world,” Ron Cross, LIV Golf’s chief events officer told Sports Illustrated. “All of our business now that we're doing has been received more positively after that announcement.”

Last week in Spain, the vice minister of tourism, culture and sport for Andalucía announced a relationship and a long-term agreement, with Real Club Valderrama agreeing to a three-year commitment and another two-year option if LIV wants to return.

“We felt that strategically for us, it was important to have top players to associate ourselves with and LIV gave us this opportunity,” Real Club Valderrama general manager Javier Revitiego told SI. “I mean, when you see the talent that they have, we're talking about players that some of them have never played in Europe, they were certainly never going to ever play in Spain, and this was for us a key in the decision.”

According to LIV Golf, with seven events spoken for like Valderrama on the LIV 2024 schedule, the other seven events will come from a pool of more than 50 entities that have submitted fully executed bid packages.

LIV will rate bids in part by a system developed by Recentive Analytics, which also works with the NFL, MLB, and individual sports and college teams.

At the same time the current events are flourishing, with bigger build-outs and another stadium hole potentially at the LIV Chicago event in September.

Other recent announcements include a global sponsorship of the Majesticks GC by OKX, the second largest crypto exchange, and a new television deal with ReachTV to air live tournament and non-live tournament coverage in U.S. airports.

LIV's employee count is also growing and the company's plans include a new sustainability strategy, which meets the PIF’s focus on renewables and sustainability.

With LIV returning to London for somewhat of an anniversary, the future to everyone is so different than it was last year when there were many questions and few answers.

Now there are different but fewer questions, and the answers over the last 12 months have been additive to making LIV a stronger product.

Revitiego explained it best when asked how working with LIV has created a better outcome than the DP World Tour.

When he tried to sell sponsorship to top Spanish companies, the first question from the potential sponsor was "who is going to play?"

Since the DP World Tour can’t force players to play in their events, the discussion quickly ended.

“In the end, the stars are what create the hype and ratings on television," Revitiego said. "So for me, what's more interesting about the LIV model is that we know exactly who we're going to have.”