Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images

What LIV Golf must do in order to survive

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Alex Miceli | Last updated Apr 1, 2025 6:44 PM ET

The LIV Golf League is back in the U.S. since its Dallas finale last September.

Opening domestically on the Blue Monster course at Doral brings back memories for those who have followed the game for some time.

In the 1960s, the West Coast had its value, with events involving Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, but the golf season really started when the PGA Tour came to Florida at the start of the Florida Swing.

Starting in 1962, when Billy Casper beat Paul Bondeson by a shot, the eventual Hall of Famer earned $9,000 for his win, and Doral became a mainstay on the Tour.

Its lofty position on the PGA Tour schedule ended in 2016 when Adam Scott beat Bubba Watson by a shot and took a whopping $1.620 million for the win, slightly different than what Casper won.

Now, in 2025, the LIV Golf League is back at Doral for its third season, and it is prominently featured in the LIV schedule as a tune-up for the Masters.

Oddly, the week seems like the vibe of previous PGA Tour events.

With warm and breezy conditions and players sprinkled throughout the property practicing and getting ready for a golf tournament, it is clear that LIV has, to some extent, accomplished one of its goals by creating the feel of a PGA Tour event.

While it may have done a better job of activation and branding, the feel is still that of a golf tournament, which in some ways might be its Achilles' heel.

For LIV to survive and prosper, it must be more than a PGA Tour event.

It must not only get the fans excited, which it has done in Adelaide, an annual stop for the Tour in Australia, but it must also find the key to getting the much-needed interest from an audience not on site.

The Fox experiment is only four tournaments old, so it needs time. By all indications, LIV will have the time to figure it out, but the product it presents to the public needs to be vastly different.

Many believe that a team concept is likely DOA, but the notion of a team tour hasn’t been given a chance.

Match play and team events seem to fall short with those who make the decisions in golf, but fans find interest in the models.

If LIV provided a team concept that wasn’t mixed with an individual purse, it would give the fans a different concept and a different way to consume its golf, which they could embrace.

The PGA Tour model has worked for years, but according to fan surveys, it has become tired and needs a reset.

LIV needs to find its own path and follow it. Hopefully, that path is dedicated to the team concept because following the PGA Tour is not a viable solution.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: