The Open is set to bestow official status on LIV Golf by awarding the Saudi-funded circuit guaranteed berths in the British major, starting at Royal Portrush this year.
It will be a huge moment for LIV, which has craved validity since it ripped up the professional golfing landscape with its formation three years ago.
The Open is the oldest and, in the eyes of many experts, the most important major in the sport and the fact that the R&A will follow the suit of the US Golf Association – the game’s other governing body, which runs the US Open – and go off the LIV rankings list to ensure the tournament has the best field possible is a big milestone.
Certainly, it is a notable shift in attitude from the R&A, which just a few years ago banned the then LIV chief executive, Greg Norman, from attending the 150th Open at St Andrews in an official capacity as former chairman.
It will be seen as another step on the road to peace, or at least co-existence, and although the number of spots on offer will not be significant – LIV would like double-figures, but as with the US Open they will probably have to be content with merely a couple at the outset of the new arrangement – the symbolism of the decision should not be underestimated. An announcement is expected in the next few weeks. Both the R&A and LIV declined to comment.
The positive news for LIV just keeps on coming. The league announced that a deal has been signed with ITV to show live action and highlights from its 14 events in 2025, starting with the second and final rounds from this week’s curtain-raiser in Riyadh. On the back of LIV signing with Fox TV, one of the main US networks, last month, this is another noteworthy partnership.
The coverage means LIV will be the only live free-to-air golf available in the UK, following the BBC’s decision to pull out screening the Masters and the Open.
“This is an exciting time for LIV Golf as we look ahead to the innovative 2025 season,” said Niall Sloane, director of ITV Sport. “This partnership delivers free-to-air coverage for fans and we are delighted to welcome LIV Golf to ITV Sport.”
LIV will deliver the coverage in full with its in-house production and ITV will provide an income stream, whether that comes in the form of rights fees or a revenue-sharing agreement for advertising. ITV’s streaming channel, ITVX, will be LIV’s primary home in the UK, although ITV1 and ITV4 are also mooted to show occasional live action. ITV4 will screen a weekly highlights package.
After spending the first three years of its controversial existence in the broadcasting shadows – LIV was only available in the UK via YouTube and the official website – Scott O’Neil, Norman’s replacement, will see this as further legitimisation of the league as a growing world power.
In our living rooms and at the majors: LIV has won golf’s civil war
With apologies to Tom McKibbin, but who says LIV Golf did not make any big signings in the close season? The Open, the US Open, Fox TV and ITV is not too shabby as a fourball.
And when Scott O’Neil – the new chief executive with a gilded CV in business – is added to the list, it makes the supposed demise of the Saudi-funded circuit seem even more absurd.
This week has highlighted that LIV is not going anywhere. The governing bodies have realised this, as has the TV market. LIV has legitimate platforms now - both on the screens in the corner of your living room and in the tournaments that really matter. It is time for Monahan and his board of self-entitled pros to find a solution and make this split not tenable, but actually beneficial to golf as a whole.
Remember June 7 2023, when PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan sat next to Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the LIV chairman and governor of the Kingdom’s £750 billion Public Investment Fund, and shocked the world of golf and beyond by announcing the “framework agreement”.
The pervading opinion was LIV had served its purpose of getting the American bigshots around the table and it would soon be sacrificed by the Saudis in the imminent peace deal. Monahan said nothing to put the brakes on this notion. He would be boss and the upstarts would do what he said.
Oh, yeah? Here we are, 20 months on, and no agreement has been reached. The initial framework has been smashed to smithereens. So many obstacles have sprung up in what they assured us would be simple enough negotiations. A truce that will unify the professional male is further away than ever.
Granted, Monahan and Tiger Woods have recently met with the new US President and there is great optimism that Donald Trump will call off the dogs at the US Department of Justice - which were intent on gnawing at the bone of anti-competition - and the way will be smoothed for a deal to go through.
But unless Al-Rumayyan performs one of the great u-turns and turns his back on LIV, the league he calls “my baby”, the very best we can hope for is that the circuits can co-exist in as much harmony as possible. But that will not amount to very much, because LIV and the PGA Tour will carry on cannibalising each other and diluting a market which currently is struggling for TV viewers.
And then it will be a race to the bottom, with prize funds that are unsustainable in the long term - and to the Tours even in the short term - with the sport eventually eating itself in its greed and refusal to come together. Because there is still a scenario that could work, even in these disparate climes.
The PGA Tour should stick to America and leave the rest of the world to LIV and the DP World Tour. By and large, the US players do not want to travel out of their gated communities very far and, as it stands, they have no reason to (unless they have already accepted the Saudi millions).
Yet as the recreational game continues to grow, there are untapped markets that an alliance between LIV and what was formerly called the European Tour, can exploit. Of course, there could be crossover in this new order. Rory McIlroy could and would continue to appear around the world, and the likes of Bryson DeChambeau could pop in for the occasional US event.
Meanwhile the majors and the Ryder Cup would carry on standing apart at the top of the sport and everybody would be happy. And more to the point, the DP World Tour would be saved, because as it stands, with LIV and the PGA Tour butting heads and trying to prove their respective mights, nobody is thinking about the circuit, surviving but little else, in the old world.
