Koepka believed LIV Golf would be 'further along'

MIAMI -- Five-time major champion Brooks Koepka admits he hoped the LIV Golf League would be further along in its fourth season as it prepares to play its first tournament in the U.S. starting Friday at Trump National Doral.

The breakaway circuit funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund [PIF] is undergoing a bit of a reset with former Merlin Entertainments CEO Scott O'Neil replacing Greg Norman, in addition to other leadership changes, as well as a new broadcast deal with Fox in the U.S.

"I think we all hoped it would have been a little bit further along, and that's no secret," Koepka said Tuesday. "No matter where you're at, you always hope everything is further along. But they're making progress, and it seems to be going in the right direction."

The league, which has team and individual competitions being played concurrently, shotgun starts and 54-hole tournaments, didn't see a bump in TV ratings in the U.S. in its first four events in 2025, which were played in Saudi Arabia, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

O'Neil, who replaced Norman as LIV Golf's CEO on Jan. 15, is overseeing the league's strategic vision, business operations and global growth. One of his first tasks in his first three months on the job was changing LIV Golf's slogan from "Golf But Louder" to "Long LIV Golf."

O'Neil, 54, was previously the president of Madison Square Garden Sports and oversaw operations of the New York Knicks and New York Rangers. He later managed the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils as CEO of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment before taking over Merlin Entertainments, which operates theme parks and hotels around the world.

"There's a place for LIV Golf in the world," O'Neil told ESPN on Tuesday. "That's one thing I've 100% committed to. I think the notion of being the F1 of golf is real. It's 100% real. Auto racing is a really interesting analogy because in the U.S. you've got NASCAR and you've got the [IndyCar] Series, and then you've got F1, and they all work pretty well together."

LIV Golf and the PGA Tour haven't worked together since Norman disrupted the sport by poaching several of the tour's top stars, including Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson and others, with guaranteed contracts reportedly worth more than $100 million.

The PGA Tour and the PIF sued each other in federal court, but the lawsuits were dropped when they signed a framework agreement on June 6, 2023 to form an alliance that would reunify the sport. That deal expired at the end of 2023, but the sides have continued to try to hammer out a deal the past two years.

PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumyyan met with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and player directors Tiger Woods and Adam Scott for more than four hours at the White House on Feb. 20.

U.S. President Donald Trump also met with Monahan and Scott in Washington on Feb. 4. Trump owns the golf course where LIV Golf is competing this week.

O'Neil isn't a part of the negotiations between the PIF and PGA Tour, but receives regular updates from Al-Rumayyan. Sources have told ESPN that team golf's place in the sport, and whether the LIV Golf League would continue to be played in its current form, are big obstacles in the negotiations.

"The reality of the way I see the world is I see the LIV Golf League with a lot of hope and a lot of future," O'Neil said. "I hope that we find a way to get more opportunities to have the best players in the world playing together. It might not be in a nice, neat bow, or it might be. We'll see."

O'Neil has been welcomed a bit more than Norman was by golf's establishment. O'Neil will attend next week's Masters, the first major of the season, after being invited by Augusta National Golf Club. Norman, a three-time Masters runner-up, had to purchase tickets to attend the 2024 tournament. A dozen LIV Golfers are in the Masters field, including five past champions.

O'Neil declined to say whether LIV Golf has extended contracts for golfers who joined the circuit in its early days. O'Neil did point out that LIV Golf extended its contract with the South Australian state government to host a tournament at The Grange Golf Club in Adelaide through 2031. An estimated 100,000 fans attended the Australian tournament in each of the past two seasons.

Bringing that excitement to the U.S. is the next step. According to published reports, about 34,000 viewers watched the final round of Joaquin Niemann's victory in Singapore on March 16 on FS1.

An average of about 3.6 million viewers (with a peak of 6.2 million) watched the final round of the Players Championship on the same day, and about 1.5 million tuned in to see Rory McIlroy defeat J.J. Spaun in a playoff at TPC Sawgrass the next day.

O'Neil called the U.S. a "pretty saturated market," and said the league is doing well in terms of viewership around the world. He said 2.5 million watched LIV Golf's season opener in Saudi Arabia on Feb. 6-8.

"It's not that the facts aren't accurate," O'Neil said. "It's just we're playing a different game. Check our ratings in the Middle East. Check our ratings in Europe when we're playing there.

"I like where we are, like our positioning. I like being a global sports league. I think that's different. I'm happy to be held accountable for ratings on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I'm happy to take a beating, quite frankly, if they're not high enough. Nobody can possibly be any more critical of us than us."