FEATURE15 February 2023

Teeing off: How insight is building the LIV Golf brand

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Liam Kay-McClean

Features Impact Innovations Leisure & Arts Trends

LIV Golf is golfing’s newest – and most controversial – format, and is building a data and insights team to match its growing status and attract fans of the sport. By Liam Kay.

a golfer taking a swing of his club infront of an american flag

It is rare that the genteel world of golf is at the centre of debate. But on 17 March 2022, former golf star Greg Norman announced that a new series of tournaments had been created, with prize money of $255m and radical alterations to the traditional format and structure.

If that wasn’t controversial enough, the tournament is being funded by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia.

LIV Golf’s emergence grabbed headlines across the world and attracted robust opposition from the sport’s governing body, the PGA. Since then, a series of tournaments has emerged, taking place from Bangkok to California and many places in between, rivalling the PGA’s dominance in the sport.

Creating a new format in any sport is incredibly hard. Cricket has seen the Indian Premier League (IPL) and, in the UK, The Hundred emerge, with new teams and a mission to build huge franchises and ...