Golf but Longer

The LIV Golf League, the first organization to professionalize playing golf in shorts to the soundtrack of Bruno Mars’ biggest hits, has taken yet another step towards reinventing the sport as we previously knew it. On Tuesday, the league announced that it will expand its format from 54 holes to 72 starting in 2026.

Bloomberg’s Matt Levine – one of the great thinkers and newsletter authors of our time – often writes that cryptocurrency is merely rediscovering traditional finance. A new upstart technology, unencumbered by the inefficiencies and norms of the status quo, is on a mission to revolutionize the financial world. Along the way, it repeatedly encounters the same problems that traditional finance already solved, ultimately realizing why certain practices and guardrails are in place. It doesn’t take much imagination to draw a parallel to what’s unfolding in professional golf.

“This (format change) is a win for the league, and the players,” Jon Rahm said. “Moving to 72 holes is the logical next step that strengthens the competition.”

Looking ahead, other logical next steps might include ditching the shotgun start format, eliminating the team competition altogether, and adding a cutline – innovations that could truly usher in the next frontier of championship golf.

Surely, I only jest. The jokes are easy, low-hanging fruit and there are alternative interpretations to Tuesday’s announcement. The 54-hole format is working, one could argue, and the announcement only underscores the rigidity of the Official World Golf Ranking, which forces conformity at the expense of innovation. It isn’t a particularly strong argument, but it is at least coherent. There is a legitimate conversation to be had about how the OWGR stifles competition and innovation in professional golf. However, I’d point to much stronger examples of its stranglehold than LIV being encouraged to abandon a format that never resonated with the masses.

The biggest takeaway from the format change is that under CEO Scott O’Neil, LIV is clearly committed to securing OWGR access, a roadblock that has hindered the league since its inception. The announcement follows recent news of expanded qualification pathways into LIV, another step towards alignment with the OWGR’s accreditation criteria. At this point, OWGR accreditation seems like a matter of when, not if. Once achieved, LIV will have a more attractive sales pitch to prospective players concerned about limited access to major championships.

Still, it is deeply amusing to watch LIV shed an integral piece of its identity in pursuit of being taken seriously. Hopefully the past few years can be a lesson for all tours and leagues that the best version of championship golf is the most competitive version. Seventy-two holes, big fields, a cutline, playing the holes in order: the wheel doesn’t need reinventing. Try reinventing it, and you may just end up discovering why it was built that way in the first place.