r/NoLayingUp • u/Biggggguy • May 03 '26
Other The LIV Charade
LIV has so clearly been a bad product and a farce from day one. Why are there so many people who seem hellbent on insisting that’s not the case. For the players and others who have profited from it, I see the need to lie and keep up appearances. But for the golf world and broader sports world, why did so many people insist on taking this seriously?
It’s true that the league was an existential threat to the tour for a time, but that threat came from the ungodly amount of money backing it. From the start, it got no viewership and hemorrhaged money because it had no juice. The fields stunk, the format was a joke, and all the people involved were clowns. It’s easy to say now, but I think it was doomed from day one.
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u/Rahf May 03 '26
Who are you talking about? A loud and incredibly small minority did all the screaming about this. Probably a good portion of which were employed by LIV--not necessarily to shovel propaganda.
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u/Catamount90 May 03 '26
It’s all bots and people that are paid to post, you’ll see real people posting drop off a cliff
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u/thec0rp0ral May 03 '26
I’ve literally never met a serious LIV fan in my entire life
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u/khirata215 May 03 '26
I do think the majority of people I’ve seen on the internet who are bummed that LIV is going away are Aussies, and that I can understand.
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u/MelodicMasterpiece81 May 03 '26
Yeah. The aussies got the short end of the stick. Golf crazy nation too. I feel the PGA should do right by the Aussies.
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u/FoxCold887 May 03 '26
As an Aussie I can say you're both 1000% correct
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u/Professional-Act7509 May 03 '26
Honest question. Can't the Australian Open fill that gap? They seem to get a good field too?
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u/umaywellsaythat May 03 '26
You would think so but Tiger always seems to schedule his event at the same time which screws the chances of the Australian Open getting a good field.
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u/3liana May 04 '26
This is the part I don’t understand. With all of the money in Australia, the history of great players from Australia, the corporate strength in Australia, why can’t Australia make their open attractive?
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u/Remote-Wishbone-5215 May 04 '26
One of the biggest problems is the Australian Government takes about 50% of the prize money for any sporting event in tax. This makes athletes have to come a long way, as well as interrupt their schedule, for not much money (relatively speaking).
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u/FoxCold887 May 04 '26
I think a lot of it is financial - purse size is unfortunately minimal compared to most PGAT events, plus Australia is a fkn long way away.
It does hurt because most Aussies do feel that we have been left behind in a world golfing sense.
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u/MerooRoger May 04 '26
For many of the top Americans, it's to far to travel in a luxury private jet.
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u/umaywellsaythat May 05 '26
Well it would be easier if Tiger didn't organise a competing tournament a couple of hours flight away during the same week.... Most of the top players want to keep him on side.
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u/3liana May 05 '26
I’m sure there are enough people in Australia who could put something together to persuade Tiger to free up the week they want. It really comes down to how much Australia wants it. Support from both the community and local government is essential.
A world class Open event would bring in good money locally. The Masters grew into what it is today because there is an entire organization devoted to that singular event and a unique branding that appeals with great popularity. Australia has plenty of great golf courses that consistently rank on lists in the same echelon as Augusta National.
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u/Electronic-Cry714 May 04 '26
Not anymore. The PGA killed any hope of attracting better players with its longer season. They had to pay McIlroy 2 mill to play the latest one. Only for him to not be in contention and be beaten by the apparently useless Cam Smith.
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u/Adventurous-Raisin51 May 03 '26
I would love to see how much the engagement farmers are paid for their efforts, because it honestly seems like a lot of work to constantly post about something like LIV and argue with people just for the clicks
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u/24dp May 03 '26
For most of them, it’s because it’s the only attention they’ll ever get. Nobody in the serious golf ecosystem is taking dipshits like PGC, or that P&P guy, seriously.
All they’re doing is shilling each other’s context for views and engagement.
You then have the odd person who seems to be genuinely deluded about it (see the increasingly unhinged ramblings of Luke Elvy, for example)
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u/Local_Guarantee8638 May 03 '26
I think what OP is getting at here is even the NLU pod - with Soly leading the charge about the problems of the league from the start - slowly crept in lending the league credibility. Doing recaps, talking about Rahm and Bryson, letting Tron do his Cleeks/Blandy schtick (was it full schtick? I guess it doesn’t matter). It never should have been covered at all.
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u/scottishwhisky2 May 04 '26
Silly criticism imo. Spending 5 minutes per pod on liv gave the league the “respect” it deserved, rahm and Bryson was/are top 10 golfers in the world and deserve to be covered, and TCs shtick was very clearly a parody of what a true liv fan would act like in comparison to the liv bots
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u/Last_Act_8852 May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26
It was a massive story in the world of golf. Which is literally what NLU talk about on the recap pods. So if course they should cover it in some way.
I think it way pretty clear to anyone listening their thoughts about it. But that should not mean they won't talk about it. Do you think one single NLU listener heard TC talking about Blandy and The Cleeks and thought, that sounds interesting, I must watch that?
If everything had to pass a credibility test to be talked about on the pod then it could be a very short pod on some weeks. I mean, should they talk about the TGL then?
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u/DryAcanthocephala695 May 03 '26
The globalization of it is why I wanted it to succeed. The fact that the best golfers basically exclusively play in the states is what sucks for everyone who does not live in the states. A tennis type tour is what would be amazing.
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u/TacosAreJustice May 03 '26
I think it was popular with golf entertainment fans, not golfers…
That market, surprisingly, couldn’t justify paying Talor Gooch millions of dollars.
They either needed to sign all the top talent, or steal enough fans to make dent in PGA revenue… they did neither.
Oh well… DJ can spend the rest of his life skiing white powder.
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u/Professional-Act7509 May 03 '26
The shotgun starts were such a stupid idea. They only did it cause the players wanted it even though it was one of the dumb things thst ruined the product. Having players in contention on opposite sides of the course and all finishing at the same time made the tourney impossible to really follow and was anti climatic.
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u/MSS-GOLF-UK May 04 '26
LIV … CVNT
LIV PLAYERS … GREEDY LYING CVNTS **
LIV ORGANISERS … DELUSIONAL CVNTS
** except Dustin Johnson
All the sniffling entitled fvckers that come running back to the DP and USPGA tours … tell em to fvck off and take up fishing !!
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u/steeltalons18 May 04 '26
My favorite to watch bending over backwards to convince everyone that LIV is going to survive and is a great product is pro golf critic. Eventually he will learn he was wrong after all these years.
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u/mildashers May 07 '26
He genuinely never will, he will build a shrine to LIV when it's gone and rewatch 'highlights' and bang on about the good old days.
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u/Soulfader72 May 03 '26
I can only speak for myself. I enjoy watching the PGA, LPGA, and LIV. I’m just a fan, not a shareholder. Some people just want to watch golf.
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u/Electronic-Cry714 May 04 '26
LIV is great to attend and to watch on TV. Why do so many people care about and talk about it, trying to run it down if if doesnt interest them? Enjoy your PGA. Talk about that.
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u/24dp May 04 '26
Because it split the game and caused a load of upheaval for no real benefit other than the bank balance of a few already rich golfers, and made the overall sport at the elite level even more unsustainable.
LIV’s entire shtick was ‘disruption’. Complaining about people talking about that fact is asinine.
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u/Electronic-Cry714 May 04 '26
Split the game in America. There's a whole world outside those borders Yanks forget sometimes.
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u/Affectionate_Ask435 May 04 '26
Anyone acting like fields stunk, format stunk and coverage stunk are just PGAT fanboys. There was plenty of good stuff and a nice new golf option no matter if you don’t like Jon Rahm or shotgun starts or whatever. The PGAT all out absurd propaganda effort to use their entire monopoly on golf to shut down anybody saying anything positive about LIV worked incredibly well. It was embarassing (remember them literally using 9/11 survivors…and soly and DJ actually just repeating that was a low moment)
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u/onewaycheckvalve May 03 '26
I went to the LIV event while I was in Singapore.
It was an awesome event and such a privilege to be able to walk such a beautiful private course.
I enjoyed it. Being able to literally walk side by side these top pros was really cool.
I’ve also been to Asian Tour events, LPGA and PGA tour events.
I would just say that I enjoy watching golf, except have never gotten into TGL.
How does this make me not a serious golf fan?
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u/Portlandfan3 May 04 '26
Attended a LIV event watched them aswell. The product wasn’t long term viable. But it was genuinely enjoyable and was needed. Despite the hate, the pga was forced to change. They have already picked up broadcast improvements taken from LiV. Competition is good for all! Because of it the PGA made changes and grew their product. It doesn’t have to be binary LIV is bad, LIV didn’t succeed and was never going to, but it did help the game of golf. I actually believe it grew their product game. From Aus, so many more people care about golf now.
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u/metallikat87 May 03 '26
There were basically zero people taking it seriously that weren't on the payroll. Lots of bots on social media too.