Greg Norman’s LIV Golf begins its fourth occasion of 2023 on Friday in Australia.
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LIV Golf is again in motion this week — in Adelaide, Australia — its first match since three of its members have been among the many top-six finishers on the Masters two weeks in the past.
While Jon Rahm received by 4, Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson tied for second, and Patrick Reed tied for fourth with Jordan Spieth. Koepka, Mickelson and Reed all left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf — and Koepka was the match chief just about all week — and their robust play didn’t go unnoticed by LIV executives.
Those gamers nonetheless, nonetheless, aren’t allowed on the PGA Tour, and earlier this month The Times of London reported that the DP World Tour received its arbitration case vs. its LIV, permitting the reinstatement of fines for and suspensions of LIV defectors.
Greg Norman, the CEO of LIV Golf, touched on that latest ruling, the way forward for his league and extra throughout a press convention in Adelaide on Thursday, as LIV readies for its first fourth occasion of the season.
“I do hope there gets to a position where there is resolution to this, because the game of golf doesn’t need to suffer. These guys don’t need to suffer. OWGR doesn’t need to suffer,” Norman mentioned. “Augusta National recognized that, and look what happened with their ratings when the LIV players came in. It was up 19 percent. Who was the benefactor of that? Augusta National, right?”
Norman is referring to the ultimate spherical of the Masters, which noticed an enormous ratings improve over Scottie Scheffler’s win the 12 months earlier than. According to CBS, the fourth spherical averaged 12.058 million viewers and peaked with greater than 15 million from 7 to 7:15 p.m., across the time Rahm received. It was the most-watched golf telecast on any community in 5 years.
This 12 months’s Masters had a lot going for it: juicy PGA Tour vs. LIV storylines (the primary time they performed collectively since final 12 months’s Open Championship, and the primary time at a Masters); the return of one of the dominant main gamers of the final decade (Koepka, who virtually received); a late Mickelson surge; and a extra tightly contested last spherical. Rahm’s successful margin was 4, nevertheless it was solely two with eight holes to play.
The PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf main stress isn’t going away anytime quickly. LIV gamers are allowed within the three remaining majors of 2023 as effectively.
“LIV is the force for good, and now guys want to play,” Norman mentioned. “They want to play in the majors. You don’t think CBS, NBC, you don’t think the corporations that sponsor those major championships don’t want Cam Smith, the Open champion, in their major tournament? Of course they do. It’s a crying shame if they take their shallow view of, caused by LIV, where because of another product they’re going to ban these guys? Well, I think Augusta National proved that case point very clearly.”
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