Saudi-backed LIV golf invitation series launches in June with $255 million across eight events
Golf is always busier in the summer, but rarely this profitable. LIV Golf Investments announced this week that it will launch the LIV Golf Invitational Series in June and will spend $255 million spread across eight events from June to October.
You know LIV Golf Investments as the company behind the Saudi-backed Super Golf League, which has been in the news a lot lately for mostly the wrong reasons.
Phil Mickelson recently lost most of my grants after it was revealed that he had helped form the operating agreement for this tournament, which will ostensibly serve as a PGA Tour rival. The fundamental problem most people have with SGL is that it is funded by the Public Investment Fund, the financial arm of the Saudi government, which doesn’t exactly score high when it comes to relationships. global system.
The league seems to have a new name, or at least its iteration. SGL is over; in its place is the LIV Golf Invitational Series, which will primarily be held at golf courses across the United States. Here’s a look at the scheduled dates and locations.
- June 9-11: Centurion Golf Club – London
- July 1-3: Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club – Portland
- July 29-31: Trump Bedminster National Golf Club – Bedminster, NJ
- September 2-4: The International – Boston
- September 16-18: Rich Harvest Farm – Chicago
- October 7-9: Stonehill Golf Club – Bangkok
- October 14-16: Royal Greens Golf Club – Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
- October 28-30: Team Championship – TBD
The details are fascinating. Each event will have an amount of $25 million ($5 million for teams and $20 million for individuals), and the team championship will have a $50 million (!). (Last week’s Players Championship was the largest in PGA Tour history at $20 million.) There will also be prize money for individual winners at the end of the year.
The format remains unchanged. Twelve teams with four players each will presumably participate in these 54-hole events, though exactly who those players will be remains to be seen.
Although Mickelson has close links to the organization, he hasn’t heard from the news for a while. Of course, he’s also not committed to the PGA Tour when he issued his apology a few weeks ago, so he could theoretically still be in. PGA Tour Player Kramer Hickok recently said he heard that 17 players have signed up. No names have been announced, although CEO Greg Norman claim many of them are interested.
“I have to tell you, from a player’s perspective, the number of responses [has been] unbelievably positive,” Norman told Golf.com this week. “I’m talking single digit players in the world, first thing was emailing me this morning, I’m glad to know what we have to say and what we have.”
In a release for players, Norman noted that this tournament complements what they are doing rather than its place, and that they will continue to move forward despite any setbacks. Last week, the PGA Tour commissioner, Jay Monahan, opened his press conference at The Players by speaking out strongly about how well the PGA Tour has performed and will stay afloat for a long time in spite of it. potential competition from any rival league.
“We’re at the Players Championship,” he said. “We’re back here, and we’re going to have full capacity, full crowd, best players in the world, and we’ll speed into our championship season and continue to grow the League.” And when we do that, all the rest doesn’t matter because we’re in a position where nobody can compete with what we have.”
Whether that is true remains to be seen. The PGA Tour certainly can’t compete with Saudi money, but will that be enough to attract enough players to make the LIV Golf Invitational Series meaningful (and marketable to TV networks that have the ability to do so). can bid on it)?
With a schedule now set and purses now funded, all that remains is the show and who will star in it. That’s the biggest question ever. Money is never in doubt. That treasury is almost endless. But with just three months to go until the first event takes place, there are still as many players committed to the tournament as ever. The other numbers can be as big as the ones getting, but as long as the significant number of players remains zero, none of that won’t even matter.
