LIV Golf's TV Deal Is On, But That Won't Convince Those Already Turned Off
Most dedicated golf fans couldn’t care less about the new contractual alliance between LIV Golf and the CW Network. The mere premise of a rival league attempting to rob the PGA Tour of its assets with obsequious sums of illicit cash makes the upstart product a non-starter to many, especially since the freshly minted aren’t even engaging in a legitimate competitive format. There’s a lot not to like about LIV Golf. The ability to watch its tournaments on television isn’t going to change that.
Any TV station airing “Kung Fu” in prime time is a bit hard to take seriously, even if it boasts 220 national affiliates and its own 6 o’clock news. In both content and structure, the CW looks and behaves a lot like TNT, another stop on the remote that didn’t earn many eyeballs until it began televising NBA games in 1989. Thirty-three years and a million Charles Barkley one-liners later, the big orange ball has grown into an indelible smash—a defining franchise for a mid-sized operation that never stops trying to get more attention.
That’s what makes CW’s partnership with LIV significant. Two unloved legions looking for some street cred. Some momentum. A chance to make a splash with the public’s ever-fluctuating consciousness, a leap into the great beyond in terms of how much the sports-on-TV landscape might change in the next decade or so. There’s no risk and there could be little reward, but right here and right now, the two were made for each other.
Dustin Johnson and LIV Golf will be on TV this season, but that isn't likely to win over fans who have refused to acknowledge the Saudi-backed circuit.
Jamie Sabau/USA TODAY Sports
You can’t pick on LIV Golf for its inability to secure a television contract one week, then laugh at the girl it brought to the dance the next. This is a big step forward, but so is graduating from kindergarten and heading into the first grade. That’s a pretty fair approximation as to where the rebel faction currently stands. Given all the dismissive noise regarding the 54-hole, no-cut, get-rich-quick factors that have undermined the Saudis best expectations, this is an outfit that doesn’t come close to fitting.
It has no chance of succeeding until it starts playing big-boy golf. One could surmise that putting it on TV will only make it less popular, if that’s possible.
Lots of great rock bands began making music in a garage, however, and you have to start somewhere. Beyond its search for mass approval and intense longing for credibility, Greg Norman and his crew of money-for-nothing tour pros have embraced a growth strategy that leaves Joe Sixpack thinking the new kid is acting way too big for its britches. One step at a time, fellas, even if it’s on a banana peel. LIV’s financial roots represent an inherent obstacle almost impossible to overcome—the whole Middle East connection is far too unforgivable for a lot of Americans to look past—so the climb will be long and slow.
Whereas YouTube was an ill-suited provider for its whimsical definition of tournament golf, LIV’s attachment to the CW might not prove much different. You can’t just start a golf league and expect everyone to drop what they were doing. In this case, little things like remembering when LIV is actually playing and finding the right channel to watch are deterrents in relation to potential viewership. The PGA Tour’s program is etched in consistency—same time every week, and it’s on either CBS or NBC. LIV’s 14-event schedule means there are three dark weeks for every week they tee it up.
The formula is more flawed than the one that became the New Coke.
As some of us tell our kids, you get what you get and you don’t get upset. The Saudi contingent had to know it was peddling an inferior commodity to any interested consumer in the television universe. That meant no big fat contract, or more specifically, little compensation at all from the carrier willing to show the world what all the fuss has been about. Both CBS and NBC might have some awfully dumbed-down stuff filling their air on weeknights, but major networks are like major championships. Everybody knows who they are and how to get there.
With all that in mind, Norman is still steering a sturdier battleship than he was a few days ago, if only because LIV has a stronger presence. The game’s devoted viewership will always remain a finicky bunch, largely eschewing the women and seniors while committing itself to the absolute highest level, but there are a fair number of fans who will watch anything featuring green grass and a little white ball. Finding LIV Golf on a streaming mechanism best amounted to something between a chore and a nuisance. Not worth the trouble, given the thin fields and lousy, rah-rah coverage. Will the CW make any attempt to improve that end of its investment?
For that matter, does anyone at the CW know which end of the club to hold? We’re talking about a network built on 1990s reruns, a place where forgotten sitcoms and the endless pile of Judge Judy knockoffs were likely purchased on the cheap, then served to those living in the boob-tube’s bargain basement on a paper plate. Not exactly anyone’s first option to televise professional golf, so if somebody’s flying blind here, it’s probably the carrier.
Not that it makes much difference, at least for now. The only broadcasting companies willing to even think about touching LIV Golf were the ones who had nothing to lose. Those willing to ignore America’s lack of tolerance for any sports league built on something other than competitive integrity, for a purpose depicted by some as an attempt to sanitize another country’s deplorable image. See no evil, hear no evil, question your sensibilities and hope for the best. It all seems to work in Las Vegas. Can it bolster a low roller on cable TV? Doesn't one wannabe deserve another?