Three-time major champion Nick Price has a strong message for LIV Golf’s players who quit the PGA Tour after slamming the product served up by the breakaway circuit
Former PGA Tour star Nick Price is not a fan of LIV Golf, claiming the Saudi Arabia-bankrolled breakaway tour will continue to struggle to attract fans.
Since stealing a number of elite players from the PGA Tour, LIV is in its third season. Since then, many more have joined the fold, including 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith and current Masters champion Jon Rahm. However, Price (67) feels that the product that commissioner Greg Norman and his paymasters have produced is unimpressive.
Unlike other world-class golf tours, which use a four-day, 72-hole format, LIV tournaments last 54 holes and include a team component all season long. The three-time major champion Price, though, is not a fan.
Like everyone else, I’m unsure of what will happen in the end. Nobody enjoys the fragmented nature of the game, he said to the Bunkered podcast. “I tried watching LIV, but I don’t think it’s a very good product. Why they attempted to invent the wheel is beyond me.
“The Indian Premier League [IPL] in cricket, which I don’t think is a bad idea, I believe had a lot to do with the decision-making and the way they tried to set it up with the franchises.” However, I don’t think their current offering will compel viewers to turn on their TVs, which is unfortunate given how many excellent players they have.
Even with a stellar lineup that includes Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, and Bryson Dechambeau, the PGA Tour garners far more viewership than LIV. Compared to LIV’s projected £2.4 million in TV revenue in 2023, the PGA Tour brought in over £400 million.
Live events from LIV are aired on cable channel The CW in the US and on YouTube worldwide. With 297,000 viewers on The CW, the LIV event’s final round in Las Vegas on February 10 ranked as the 51st sports show in America that day. On the same day, 1.7 million people watched the third round of the Waste Management Open on the PGA Tour.
In the latter part of his playing career, Price acknowledges he would have joined LIV Golf purely for financial gain, but he is upset with players who passed up the PGA Tour in favor of the breakaway circuit.
The fact that some players on the LIV tour disparaged the PGA Tour for a while after signing was something that truly saddened me. Some of them earned over $100 million on the PGA Tour, and they forgot about that,” he continued.
“I regret that those men were so harsh in their criticism of the tour; it’s one of the elite sports organizations that presents golfers to the most affluent corporate audience imaginable.
“Those guys all had that and turned their back on it because if you have an image on the PGA Tour, so many corporations want to be a part of you and throw money at you, so to speak.”
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