It’s Been Two Years Since LIV Signed A Top Player

When I first started at MyGolfSpy a little over two years ago, my opening column was about Jon Rahm’s move to LIV and the ramifications (Rahm-ifications?) it would have on the golf world.

Shortly after Rahm joined, Tyrrell Hatton came over to LIV as another world-class talent.

At the time, it felt like LIV could slowly bleed the PGA Tour dry by signing away its top players. The Tour seemed vulnerable throughout much of 2024 as TV ratings were down, fan apathy was up and the potential for more player defections loomed.

But it turns out that Hatton was the last player of consequence to join LIV.

Sure, LIV has nibbled around the edges by signing players like Anthony Kim, Tom McKibbin, Thomas Detry and Victor Perez—but none of them has moved the needle in a meaningful way.

Now it’s been reported by multiple outlets that Akshay Bhatia, the 23-year-old who has won twice on the PGA Tour, recently turned down a lucrative offer from LIV. Bhatia is not a superstar but he would have been LIV’s biggest signing since Hatton.

In the past two years, LIV has gained very little and lost one of their premier talents in Brooks Koepka.

Now they are struggling to sign players like Bhatia, a guy ranked 46th in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Why has LIV been unable to sign players?

In my mind, there are a handful of answers for why the game’s best have stuck with the Tour instead of bolting for LIV.

Perhaps most notably is the increased cash flowing into the Tour as the signature event series has $20-million purses and the Players Championship has a $25-million purse. The increased money was, of course, a result of the competition with LIV.

During the 2021-2022 Tour season, the average earnings amounted to $1.6 million. This past year, it was $2.3 million. Given the number of members, that is a substantial increase—and almost all of it is going to the top tier of players.

The median payout for LIV players was $3.73 million, with the average slightly above that.

Yes, LIV players make more on average—but it’s not really that much of a difference. And the top players on the Tour are still making a lot of money.

The Tour appears to be in a stable position with decent TV ratings and enough corporate sponsorship backing to keep their model going. And the idea of scarcity with its future tournament schedule being limited will probably appeal even more to the top players.

At the same time, LIV hasn’t really gained momentum and there are questions about how long the Saudis will want to invest in golf if the return is going to be this minimal.

I think there are a few other reasons Tour players are staying put, however.

• LIV players have, for the most part, seen a decrease in performance. Bryson DeChambeau is the only exception among the top tier of LIV players. There are only three LIV players in the top 50 of the Data Golf rankings that take all professional golf into account. For golfers still wanting to remain competitive, the evidence hasn’t been great that LIV will be helpful.

• LIV still hasn’t qualified for OWGR points so most of its members have been unable to qualify for majors that way.

• Many of the initial perks that LIV offered—such as paying fines for DP World Tour members—are no longer on the table.

• Some players have seen their reputation injured. Or the golf world has forgotten about them.

If you add all of that up, there is less incentive for top players to jump to LIV.

So what happens now?

With the Tour and LIV unlikely to unify any time soon, I don’t see how LIV is going to attract better talent unless there is a dramatic change in its product.

One potential change could be the OWGR points. LIV recently switched to 72 holes in hopes that they will meet the criteria for the OWGR.

That is an improvement but LIV is still mainly an invitational series with minimal qualifying or threat of losing a spot. It’s hard to see how they are going to bypass those hurdles but we will find out.

In the meantime, LIV will do well just to retain its top talent like DeChambeau, Rahm and Hatton.

Do you see LIV signing more players in the future? Let me know below in the comments.