MIAMI – Five-time major champion Brooks Koepka acknowledges that he hopes the LIV Golf League will move further into the fourth season as he prepares to play his first US tournament at Trump National Doral on Friday.
The Breakaway Circuit, funded by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, has been reset slightly along with other leadership changes, along with a new broadcast deal with US Fox along with Scott O’Neill, former CEO of Merlin Entertainment on behalf of Greg Norman.
“I think we all hoped it would have been a little more ahead. That’s no secret,” Koepka said Tuesday. “No matter where you are, you always want everything to go further. But they’re making progress and it seems they’re on the right track.”
The league saw teams and individual competitions at the same time, shotguns started, 54 holes tournaments, and did not clash with television ratings in the US in the first four events of 2025.
O’Neill, who replaced Norman as CEO of Liv Golf on January 15th, oversees the league’s strategic vision, business operations and global growth. One of his first tasks of his first three months at work was to change the Liv Golf slogan from “Golf” to “Long Liv Golf.”
O’Neill, 54, was previously president of Madison Square Garden Sports and Director’s Operations for the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers. He later managed the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils as CEO of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment before taking over Merlin Entertainment, which operates theme parks and hotels around the world.
“There are places for LIV golf all over the world,” O’Neill told ESPN on Tuesday. “That’s one of those things I’ve been 100% committed. I think the concept of golf being Formula 1 is real. It’s 100% realistic. Auto racing is a really interesting similarity, because in the US you have NASCAR and you have the (IndyCar) series, so they all work together.”
The Liv Golf and the PGA Tour have not worked together since disrupting the sport as Norman has reportedly been worth more than $100 million after poaching some of the tour’s top stars, including Koepka, Bryson Decanbaugh, John Larm, Dustin Johnson and more, disrupted the sport.
The PGA Tour and PIF sued each other in federal courts, but on June 6, 2023, the lawsuit was dropped to form an alliance that reunifies sports. The transaction expired at the end of 2023, but has been trying to prevent it from happening for the past two years.
PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan met with PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and players Tiger Woods and Adam Scott for more than four hours at the White House on February 20th.
US President Donald Trump met with Monaghan and Scott in Washington on February 4th. Trump owns the golf course where Liv Golf competes this week.
O’Neill is not part of the negotiations between the PIF and PGA tours, but will receive regular updates from Al-Rumayyan. Sources told ESPN that its position in the sport of team golf and whether or not the Liv Golf League will continue to be played in its current form is a major obstacle to negotiations.
“The reality of the way I see the world is that I see the Liv Golf League with a lot of hope and a lot of future,” O’Neil said. “I hope we find ways to increase the chances of playing together the best players in the world. That may or may not be in a nice, neat bow.
O’Neill is a little more welcome than Norman by golf facilities. O’Neill will be attending the first major of the season, next week’s Masters after being invited to Augusta National Golf Club. Norman, who has a three-time master’s degree, had to buy a ticket to participate in the 2024 tournament. Dozens of Liv golfers are on the Masterfield, including five past champions.
O’Neill refused to say whether Liv Golf had extended the contract for golfers who joined the circuit early. O’Neill pointed out that LIV Golf extended its contract with the South Australian government to host tournaments at Grunge Golf Clubs in Adelaide until 2031.
Bringing that excitement to the US is the next step. According to a published report, around 34,000 viewers watched the final round of Joaquinnyman’s victory in Singapore on FS1 on March 16th.
On average, about 3.6 million viewers (peak at 6.2 million) watched the final round of the players’ championship on the same day, with about 1.5 million people watching Rory McIlroy defeating JJ Spaun in the playoffs at TPC Sawgrass.
O’Neill called the US a “pretty saturated market” and said the league is doing well in terms of audiences around the world. He said 2.5 million people saw the season opening game for Liv Golf in Saudi Arabia on February 6-8.
“It’s not that the facts aren’t accurate,” O’Neill said. “We’re just playing another game. Check out our ratings in the Middle East. Check out our ratings in Europe.
“I like where we are. It’s like positioning. I like being a global sports league. I think that’s not true. I’m happy to be responsible for the assessment on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.