Phil Mickelson claims LIV Golf is trending up against PGA Tour, but numbers paint a different picture
Brooks Koepka won the LIV Golf Jeddah event over the weekend, a tournament that very few people watched and even fewer people attended. In a vacuum, this is a strange moment in the sport: Koepka, the major four-time champion, leads the way to a stunning record – Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Peter Uihlein, Matthew Wolff, Paul Casey and Joaquin Niemann – however not lacking in any buzz, even as Koepka gets emotional about how difficult golf has been for him over the past two years.
That’s not to say LIV Golf Jeddah isn’t important. It clearly has implications for emerging tournament participants and moderators. However, what Phil Mickelson said earlier in the week continues to resonate as most of the sports world ignores the better story: The four-time major winner almost burst into tears after beating other big winners in a $20 million golf tournament because he didn’t know if he’d ever get to play again.
However, Koepka’s victory was not the focus. Why so?
Well, there are thousands of reasons, perhaps the most important of which is that LIV Golf is not played in a vacuum. Among those factors was the event being held in Saudi Arabia, which has made a splash for running the tournament with an eye for normalizing human rights issues. So that’s part of it.
Golf fans have so far refused to consider it a legit tournament because LIV relies on a shotgun start, plays 54 holes without a cut and doesn’t boast a roster of golfers. great beyond its top 10.
Mickelson, not in the top 10, disagrees. He spent the week in Jeddah welcoming LIV as the future of the sport.
“As I said before, in my long, 30 years on the PGA Tour, almost all of the best players have played on the PGA Tour, at least in the last 20 years,” Mickelson said. “That will never happen again. I think in the future, you have to choose a side. You have to choose the side that you think will succeed.
“And I firmly believe I’m on the winning side on how things will develop and shape in the coming years for professional golf. We compete against a lot of the best players in the world on LIV, and there’s a lot of the best players in the world on the PGA Tour, and until some – well, until both sides sit down to chat and work things out, both sides will continue to change and develop.
“And I see LIV Golf trending up, I see the PGA Tour trending down, and I love the side that I’m in. And I like the way I feel. I like the way I’ve been rehabilitated. and excited to play golf and compete. I love the experience. I like the way they treat us.”
It’s interesting that Mickelson claims LIV Golf is trending up. By far, many people argue that the main driver of traffic or viewership for LIV Golf is its great signings, including Mickelson. It also added Johnson, Koepka, Niemann, Garcia as well as defending Open champion and Player Champion Cameron Smith.
The way LIV has done about these contracts is also very smart. It separates them so that there is a steady stream of intrigue and interest in acquisitions. However, those signings only served as bright spots for the league.
In fact, interest in LIV is dwindling instead of growing. Research conducted by Golfdatatech obtained by CBS Sports found that only 23% of respondents believe LIV Golf is a “good” idea, down from 27% in an earlier poll. Additionally, 58% believe LIV is a “bad” or “very bad” idea, up from 50%. (Four versions of the study have been performed since LIV began.)
Contrary to Mickelson’s claims, this shows that LIV Golf is not trending up – at least when it comes to fan acquisition.
The majority of those polled by Golf Datatech (66%) agree that they “don’t like Saudi money sponsoring” LIV Golf. This number has been consistent over the past several months.
Even more interesting are the numbers on YouTube. In the five events before Jeddah (data not yet available), Boston had the best viewership to date. That event coincided with Smith signing the contract. Chicago, the live event behind Boston, is second with Bangkok coming last by a wide margin.
LIV Golf is broadcast on other platforms globally; YouTube isn’t the only place you can watch all over the world. However, the YouTube-only data seems to back up what others have suggested about big-time signings being the only major catalyst driving interest in the league.
Perhaps that will change in the coming months and years, but the data do not seem to support Mickelson’s theory. That doesn’t mean it won’t in the future, it just doesn’t right away.
Mickelson is well paid – like many others – to deliver LIV Golf arguments that aim to turn the tables on the PGA Tour. It’s in their best interest, of course, but it doesn’t make those claims true. LIV is hardly the only organization that salutes itself in that way, although it stands out under the circumstances.
One day, Mickelson might actually be the “winner” of all of this. We won’t know that for a few years, maybe even longer. However, as it stands, one cannot make that claim objectively. LIV Golf is simply not as flexible on the whole PGA Tour as some would like you to believe.
