non-U.S. revenues hit \u00a364.9m for LIV<\/a> in 2024, up 75 percent in 2023, yet still a long way below the \u00a3553m paid out in costs.<\/p>\n\u201cI definitely never speak for the PIF or for our chairman,\u201d O\u2019Neil said when asked about changes within the PIF and implications for the future of LIV Golf. \u201cI can only say our board meetings are positive and uplifting. The support is very strong, and given the momentum we had, it\u2019s a good time to be at LIV Golf.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neil says his metric for an evaluation of LIV\u2019s business model is multi-dimensional.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are two ways to look at it. One is off the previous three years. And by that standard, we had an extraordinary year. Or you can measure it about where our expectations are for what this business can become. And there we\u2019ve got some wood to chop, and some hill to climb,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Players now paying fines<\/p>\n
For the better part of three years, LIV Golf has paid all fines from the DP World Tour, as the European tour sanctioned players for playing on LIV without proper releases. The Telegraph reported more than \u00a315 million has come from the Saudi-backed league, even before adding the \u00a38 million to \u00a310 million in limbo as stars Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton await their appeals.<\/p>\n
No more. As reported in July, players will be responsible for paying their own fines. O\u2019Neil confirmed this move Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the reasons that that makes a lot of sense is so that the European tour and LIV Golf and the players now are aligned to hopefully sit at the table and figure out how to walk this down and act in the best interest of golf,\u201d O\u2019Neil said. \u201cThat\u2019s a very good starting place.\u201d<\/p>\n
What remains unknown is what will come of Rahm\u2019s and Hatton\u2019s appeals, expected to be decided early next year. Per The Telegraph, Rahm\u2019s manager wrote Rahm has no intention of paying fines. The potential impasse runs the risk of players such as Rahm and Hatton being ineligible for the Ryder Cup.<\/p>\n
Communication with the PGA Tour<\/p>\n
Golf\u2019s great civil war was initiated under old leadership. For all intents and purposes, Norman and Jay Monahan are out of the picture. Instead, two new faces in their early 50s lead LIV and the PGA Tour, as Brian Rolapp became tour CEO in August.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neil didn\u2019t divulge any new information on potential negotiations or the actual dynamics between the two, but there appears to at least be a working dialogue. O\u2019Neil has referred to Rolapp as a friend in the past.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe both agreed we\u2019re not gonna negotiate in the media,\u201d O\u2019Neil said. \u201cWe\u2019re not gonna talk about things we talked about in the media, or even that we talked. So that\u2019s the good news.\u201d<\/p>\n
Future LIV signings<\/p>\n
For the second offseason in a row, LIV didn\u2019t exactly bring in any blockbuster names. The days of causing shockwaves through golf with signings like Rahm, Koepka and DeChambeau have faded, and this winter, the lone two signings are journeymen Victor Perez and Laurie Canter. In fact, Canter is a re-signing, coming back to the league after being relegated in 2023 and playing the last two years on the DP World Tour.<\/p>\n
While O\u2019Neil is not claiming LIV doesn\u2019t want to sign other big names, he boasted about the youth wave LIV has brought in the last few years. Behind 27-year-old Niemann, LIV has 23-and-under talents such as David Puig, Tom McKibbin and 2024 U.S. Amateur champ Josele Ballester.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m much more interested in a player that has a trajectory,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re building a league of the future, if we\u2019re building truly the world\u2019s global golf league, we need young talent.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neil maintained LIV has the resources to pursue more big-name signings and claimed the league receives interest from outside players. The goal is depth, as LIV can boast having stars who won seven majors from 2020 to 2024 and some of the game\u2019s \u201clegends,\u201d as he liked to call them. It just doesn\u2019t have full fields that compete with the PGA Tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you compare the strength of field \u2014 which I have, our team has \u2014 across the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, for the first 25 players, it\u2019s pretty, pretty close,\u201d O\u2019Neil said. \u201cThe next 25 is not as close, and so it\u2019s incumbent upon us to make sure that we create enough pathways and that we\u2019re given the opportunity to, without fine, suspensions, threats, so and so, that allows players the opportunity to come into this incredible league.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LIV Golf\u2019s string of recent format changes \u2014 including moving from 54 to 72 holes \u2014 is increasing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99,1794],"class_list":["post-337673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-sports-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}