\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of players with some great contacts that have approached Scott and connected people through the business world,\u201d says Lucas Herbert, the Ripper GC player who sits fourth in the league\u2019s 2026 standings. \u201cThis stuff just takes time and hopefully they can do all the work they need to get done. Hopefully it gets done and obviously we can continue on this great product next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s understood a reduced 10-event schedule is being pitched to investors \u2013 with a sharper focus on team golf and the international venues in which the league has enjoyed the most success. LIV also hopes that its restructured calendar could be populated with national opens. During one of his first interviews after it emerged LIV was losing its funding, O\u2019Neil revealed the league was exploring the staging of these historic tournaments, which for years have been the cornerstone of the DP World Tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cWill there be a change in how we operate? Of course,\u201d O\u2019Neil said. \u201cI would have told you that last year and six months ago. We are looking to blend a version of LIV and the national opens, the great national opens around the world. We think they\u2019re the most underappreciated, undermarketed, underdeveloped assets in golf, and the reason is it gets us on the ground to grow the game of golf.\u201d<\/p>\n
LIV has been targeting national opens in territories they have enjoyed the most interest. The league\u2019s standout success stories have been visits to\u00a0Adelaide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0South Africa<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and LIV hoped to build on their foundations in the southern hemisphere by completing a deal to co-sanction the Australian Open.<\/p>\n However, as first revealed by TG<\/a>, an approach from LIV was knocked back, with the DP World Tour securing an extension on its co-sanctioning rights of the event for at least another three years.<\/p>\n The historic events have now become a key battleground in golf\u2019s ongoing power struggle, with LIV attempting to map out a sustainable future without $30 million purses. The problem for LIV is that many of these national opens are already on the DP World Tour\u2019s schedule.<\/p>\n \u201cFor a long time, we\u2019ve focused on building up our tour as credible,\u00a0sustainable, strong, and built around national opens,\u201d DP World Tour CEO Guy Kinnings told TG<\/a> recently. \u201cThat\u2019s not something you just come in and get like that.\u00a0It\u2019s decades of building a relationship with the federations.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Lucas](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/lucas_herbert.jpg\")
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