LIV Golf Is Struggling To Make A Star, According To Dan Rapaport

At this point, the story of how LIV Golf started is fairly well known.  A new renegade golf league broke onto the scene and has disrupted the sport for better and for worse.  LIV managed to make some splashes by signing contracts with well-known pros.  The tournaments for LIV Golf are big, bombastic, with a lot of money going into each one for the world tour format it has.  LIV Golf has a slogan that accompanies every tournament, “Golf But Loud,” and the league lives up to it by featuring big-name players who perform live music.  However, on the Dan On Golf podcast, host of the show Dan Rapaport has noticed that the new league is struggling to make a new star for the sport, while the PGA has them constantly rolling in.

Dan Rapaport On The Rookies

The argument that Rapaport is making is based on simple observation.  Sure, LIV Golf has all these stars who joined when the league first formed, but not much beyond them.  There have been rookie players who joined LIV, but they rarely get much attention.  Meanwhile, at the PGA Tour, players like Danny Walker are gaining traction in just the first half of their first year.  Rapaport said this on his show.

“The PGA Tour has an ability to coin new stars that LIV just doesn’t. They just don’t. The closest thing to a star that they’ve created is Joaquin Niemann, and all the discourse is about how he doesn’t do s–t in the majors. It’s not like, ‘oh, he’s a new star in the game’. It’s like, ‘Well, he hasn’t proven it in the majors. ’”

Rapaport Highlights Rookies In Both Leagues

Joaquin Niemann was even told that he should move to the PGA if he wants to someday gain a better advantage.  Rapaport mentioned that the PGA is seeing a lot of success through its PGA Tour U program.  This brought the aforementioned Danny Walker, as well as Luke Clanton, who earned his Tour card this year.  Aldrich Potgieter is still a rookie and just won the Rocket Classic.

LIV Golf did have a chance with Eugenio Chacarra, who actually won a tournament in the league’s first season.  However, multiple issues, including the lack of exposure after his first win, led to him leaving the league.  Chacarra is now working towards his Tour Card through the DP World Tour while he waits for his suspension to time out.

Pros And Cons Of Joining LIV

There are plenty of pros to joining LIV Golf for professional players.  The world Tour aspect means that the players are always seeing new countries.  The fanfare that comes with a LIV Golf event is exhilarating.  Although it won’t be around for much longer, the contracts pay out incredibly well, more than enough to live comfortably.  However, there are a number of cons to joining the league.  Despite the merger efforts with the PGA, the rest of the world is against the league, including the PGA.  Players are barred from other leagues, and the OWGR doesn’t recognize LIV events.  Also, as Rapaport has noticed, the league doesn’t seem interested in highlighting its rookie players.