LIV Golf CEO Scott O\u2019Neil is nearly a full year into his role and is looking ahead to the league\u2019s start in Riyadh in February. \u201cI\u2019m more bullish today than I was 11 months ago,\u201d he said last week. O\u2019Neil caught up with SBJ to discuss myriad topics around LIV, including its financials, Official World Golf Ranking points application and more.<\/p>\n
LIV\u2019s move to 72 holes, update on OWGR<\/p>\n
LIV made a major change in format just a month ago, moving to 72 holes from its initial 54-hole format. O\u2019Neil said the change came about with the four major championships in mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cSentiment seems to be that the biggest stage in the world is the majors, and we need to do everything we can to best prepare [LIV players] for the majors,\u201d O\u2019Neil said. \u201cAnd the sentiment is let\u2019s mirror the format and that makes complete intuitive sense to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neil said he also believed the change would help with the league\u2019s application for Official World Golf Ranking points. LIV submitted a new application early in 2025, and O\u2019Neil said there\u2019s been \u201cquite a bit of back and forth\u201d between himself and the OWGR and its chairman, Trevor Immelman. O\u2019Neil believes there\u2019s a \u201cpuncher\u2019s chance\u201d for LIV to receive points before the start of its 2026 season, but \u201cthere\u2019s a lot to do on both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turning around financials<\/p>\n
LIV\u2019s non-U.S. entity posted financial losses of $460M in 2024, prior to O\u2019Neil\u2019s arrival. LIV\u2019s U.S. financials aren\u2019t public. Asked what could be done to turn the tide, O\u2019Neil said the league is still square in the middle of its process.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re doing what I think hopefully most businesses will do with a four-year-old company,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s first: assess the strategy, where are we going? Why are we going where we\u2019re going? The mission is really clear to take some of the best players in the world to the world and grow the game of golf. So, once you have a mission, then your doors become pretty clear. Then you set the strategy. How are we going to get there? What does it actually look like? We have that nailed down internally. Then you build the structure and then you go get the people that fit that structure, and we\u2019re somewhere in the middle of that process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of that process, O\u2019Neil said, included new commercial deals the league signed in 2025. It brought on corporate partners, including HSBC and Salesforce, all the while hiring Chris Heck as the league\u2019s new president.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe good news is there\u2019s tremendous momentum and so we have to build on what we had,\u201d O\u2019Neil said. \u201cWe had a really incredible year and certainly exceeded where my expectations were walking in the door, but that is more an indication of what\u2019s to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Koepka\u2019s LIV future<\/p>\n
Heading into its fifth season, a handful of LIV\u2019s original players have contracts that are up for renewal. Dustin Johnson announced recently that he had renewed his deal, and Bryson DeChambeau reportedly has been in talks on an extension for his contract that ends after 2026.<\/p>\n
Brooks Koepka was one of LIV\u2019s core signees when the league launched in 2022, but Koepka\u2019s deal is up following the 2026 season. At least four golf sources indicated there was a chance he may not play in the upcoming LIV season despite being under contract. Should he not play LIV, Koepka still would have access to each major, as well as the DP World Tour following his win at the 2023 PGA Championship.<\/p>\n
Asked if Koepka was playing on LIV in 2026, O\u2019Neil responded: \u201cI know you\u2019re not going to want to hear this one, just the individual players, and this goes back to our policy, we\u2019re just going to run it through. So, we haven\u2019t made any announcements on players, but he is signed for 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former LIV players have competed on the PGA Tour after serving a one-year suspension after their final LIV tournament. But those players hadn\u2019t previously had a PGA Tour card like Koepka. Should Koepka fall under the same one-year suspension, he would be eligible for PGA Tour play in late August of 2026. However, it\u2019s still unclear the extent of disciplinary actions Koepka would face should he seek a return.<\/p>\n
Relationship with Rolapp<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neil has detailed his relationship with PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp going back to their days at Harvard Business School. O\u2019Neil has said he saw Rolapp\u2019s hiring as a net positive for the future of men\u2019s professional golf. Asked about his interactions with Rolapp since he was hired in the summer, O\u2019Neil said the two agreed to keep their conversations private.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re both new in our roles and I won\u2019t speak for him. I\u2019ll speak for me,\u201d O\u2019Neil said. \u201cI spend 95% of my time focusing on LIV Golf and how we grow this business and the other 5 on a whole host of things, including what the ecosystem looks like and how we can better engage.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I feel like there\u2019ll be the new world order, if you will. Seems like the dominant player in the U.S. will be the PGA Tour and the dominant player in the rest of the world is going to be LIV Golf, and how those leagues and tours coincide and work together and create content and engage, I think will emerge over time. But we\u2019re happy with our progress for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more from SBJ\u2019s conversation with O\u2019Neil in tonight\u2019s SBJ Media newsletter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LIV Golf CEO Scott O\u2019Neil is nearly a full year into his role and is looking ahead to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,10658,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-338414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-liv-golf","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338414","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=338414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}