{"id":528893,"date":"2026-03-11T10:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T10:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/528893\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T10:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T10:38:08","slug":"liv-golf-ceo-scott-oneil-on-how-stuck-golfers-got-out-of-a-besieged-gulf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/528893\/","title":{"rendered":"LIV Golf CEO Scott O\u2019Neil on how stuck golfers got out of a besieged Gulf"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Iranian missiles shut down Gulf airspace, several professional golfers bound for LIV Golf\u2019s Hong Kong tournament found themselves stuck in Dubai<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In all, eight LIV players, three broadcasters, four caddies and several family members were stuck in the Middle East, LIV Golf CEO Scott O\u2019Neil recounted to Fortune on March 9, the third day of the four-day contest in Hong Kong.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEvents like this can be a bit stressful because the only thing we\u2019re focusing on is our sole focus is making sure the players, the caddies, the broadcasters and their families are safe\u201d LIV Golf CEO Scott O\u2019Neil told Fortune on March 9, the third day of the four-day contest in Hong Kong.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stranded golfers ended up making a mad dash to Oman and golfer Jon Rahm\u2019s private jet to get them to LIV Golf Hong Kong, and made it to Hong Kong in time. (Oman has become a popular exit for expats fleeing the Gulf; on March 9, Muscat\u2019s airport limited access<\/a> to private jets to ensure space for commercial and government flights).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe experience our fair share of challenges as the geopolitical world reveals itself. We always think first and foremost about safety,\u201d O\u2019Neil said, crediting \u201cprecise planning, excellent resources and tremendous leadership, particularly from Jon Rahm and [general manager] Jeff Koski,\u201d in getting the golfers out of the conflict zone and to Hong Kong on time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LIV\u2019s Hong Kong tournament, held at the 137-year-old Hong Kong Golf Club at Fanling near the border with mainland China, looked different from a traditional golf tournament. DJ sets and chef-led cooking demos sit alongside the competition, part of LIV\u2019s \u201cgolf for everyone\u201d push. O\u2019Neil noted that 30% of LIV\u2019s Hong Kong attendees had never been to a golf tournament before.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neil took over as LIV\u2019s CEO in early 2025, succeeding Hall-of-Famer Greg Norman, who launched the breakaway league in 2021. O\u2019Neil is a career sports executive, running properties like Madison Square Garden, the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils, and most recently served as CEO of Merlin Entertainments, operator of the Legoland resorts, before joining LIV.<\/p>\n

LIV Golf, backed by Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund, burst onto the scene<\/a> promising to disrupt men\u2019s professional golf with the slogan \u201cGolf, but Louder.\u201d The league lured stars such as Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka with large guaranteed contracts and pitched a shorter, more broadcast-friendly format built around both individual and team competitions.<\/p>\n

The golf upstart still has a long way to go until it\u2019s financially sustainable. LIV Golf\u2019s UK arm, which oversees non-U.S. operations, reported a $462 million loss<\/a> in 2024, bringing cumulative losses since 2022 to more than $1.1 billion, according to filings. A proposed merger<\/a> between the PGA Tour and LIV, announced in 2023, has stalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an early-stage business,\u201d O\u2019Neil said. \u201cIf you talk to any of the executives here, you\u2019ll find us walking with a quiet confidence.\u201d He added that overall revenue has doubled, ticket revenue is up about 80% year-on-year, and that LIV\u2019s tournaments were responsible for over $1 billion in economic impact worldwide.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia has pulled back on some of its most ambitious projects, and the Iran war could tighten Riyadh\u2019s wallet. The PIF has committed over $5 billion to LIV. Yet O\u2019Neil is optimistic about PIF\u2019s involvement, saying LIV feels \u201cappreciated, loved and supported,\u201d describing the experience as \u201cquite a journey to be with extraordinary investors who have a long-term approach to business.\u201d<\/p>\n

The PGA Tour has responded to the new competition<\/a> by creating pathways for LIV players to return, rolling out new high-purse \u201csignature\u201d events, and pushing harder into Asian markets. It also installed a new chief executive, Brian Rolapp, in June. That pushed LIV to respond in turn: the league ended up tweaking its format to allow players to qualify for golf\u2019s major championships, narrowing one of its key differentiators.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LIV is borrowing a page from U.S. team sports to narrow the gap with PGA. Each team operates as a quasi-franchise with its own branding and commercial rights; team captains can hold equity in the teams and seek their own sponsors. O\u2019Neil confirmed to Fortune that Citi has been hired<\/a> to help LIV sell minority equity stakes in its teams.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neil\u2014who called LIV the \u201cF1 of golf\u201d\u2014believes the league can carve out a global niche. \u201cThe PGA Tour is in America, and they do a wonderful job there,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are also more than 100 million golfers outside the U.S., and that\u2019s the market we\u2019re interested in.\u201d LIV already stages events in South Korea<\/a> and Australia<\/a>, and O\u2019Neil singled out mainland China and Japan as priority markets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s plenty of room for everyone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Iranian missiles shut down Gulf airspace, several professional golfers bound for LIV Golf\u2019s Hong Kong tournament found…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,15674,1259,82],"class_list":["post-528893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-hong-kong","tag-middle-east","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}