Don’t call it a comeback!
On Tuesday afternoon, LIV Golf announced it would shift all events to 72 holes with immediate effect, bringing the rival league in line with the competitive standard in the rest of professional golf. The move clears a potential hurdle from the runway as the league tries to gain entry Official world golf rankings (or OWGR), giving LIV players access to the all-powerful world rankings points used to determine their eligibility for a major championship.
Although the switch to 54 holes was already being considered and rumors were circulating, it came as a blow to the golf world on Tuesday. A key part of LIV’s initial sales into golf was its 54-hole events, which league officials said lowered costs and streamlined the viewing experience. Even LIV’s name was tied to the identity of 54 holes, coming from the Roman numeral for ’54’. (LIV has also linked the number 54 to a “perfect” score in golf – 18 birdies on a par-72 course.)
“We will continue to have that conversation going forward,” said former LIV CEO Greg Norman about the possibility of a 72-hole shift in the summer of 2024. “But we sit back and ask: What value do we get from broadcasting television on Thursdays? How do we build out in the future?”
As radical as LIV’s thinking may have been, no amount of innovation could help the league overcome two hard truths: LIV needed OWGR status to pave a path to major championship participation, and major championship participation was necessary to meaningfully steal talent or market share from the PGA Tour and DP World Tours. (Previously, the only options for an LIV player to advance to the majors were an exemption from previous success in a major championship, a special exemption, or qualification.)
The OWGR’s position on LIV had remained consistent since the league’s initial application: LIV was too much of a “closed shop,” and the limitations of the competitions (no cuts, smaller fields, 54 holes) made it difficult to fairly distribute ranking points.
LIV’s players fought back against this categorization, arguing that the duration of the competition had no bearing on its competitive significance. Some of them argued that in return for the 72-hole standard that has been used to determine golf tournaments for most of golf’s history.
“I just think it’s funny, this arbitrary number of 72,” said Talor Gooch, one of the players most affected by the lack of points in the world rankings, around the time LIV was founded. “Why isn’t it 90? Why isn’t it 108? We just decided to make that number the number, and for what reason?”
Apparently, LIV’s current leadership – led by CEO Scott O’Neill – found the potential benefits of competing in a major championship more attractive than issues of branding. The decision to move to 72 holes should expedite the league’s application for OWGR eligibility under new president Trevor Immelman, giving LIV the core that has proven elusive since launch: a path for LIV players to play their way to the majors.
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