LIV Golf is Giving Fyre Fest, Justin Rose Changes Gears

We’re doing a slightly different format for this edition of the weekly update. Instead of centering the piece around a graphic, I want to dig into a couple of the biggest pro golf news stories of the week. 

Golf but Later 

LIV Golf Louisiana has been officially postponed. Originally slated for late June, the event will now either be rescheduled for later in the year or not played at all. Statements from both the state of Louisiana and LIV Golf indicate the two sides are working toward a fall date. We’ll see if that happens. 

With Louisiana off the LIV Golf calendar, there are now no LIV events between June 8 and July 22 — that’s a month-and-a-half layoff in the middle of major championship season. In its statement, LIV called the move a “strategic decision,” citing peak summer heat, a crowded sports calendar, and potentially suboptimal course conditions.

It is a deeply unserious rationale. As many have already been quick to point out, these are not new variables. You’re just now realizing that it might be a little hot to host a golf tournament in New Orleans in June? Be serious. 

Beyond the embarrassment of the prepared statements, cracks continue to show in a product that has yet to prove itself as viable. LIV Adelaide and LIV South Africa have demonstrated real on-site interest, wisely delivering starpower to golf-starved markets. But otherwise, LIV has been an abject failure in every sense. 

We are living through a unique period in human history, where more and more of our lives have been digitized. By extension, less of our time is spent on tangible things. Thus, it has never been easier and more scalable to distort perception. It only takes a few keystrokes to create and spread a false portrayal of reality. 

Since LIV Golf’s inception, there has been a crowd eager to amplify narratives about the league’s success, none of which has ever been grounded in reality. Many of those people seem to be anti-establishment and blindly in favor of anything that disrupts the status quo, and a much smaller faction seems to be genuinely interested in the action. Regardless, the sum of those contingents doesn’t translate to a meaningful audience capable of sustaining a league carelessly burning through hundreds of millions of dollars. 

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Outside of the small online pockets where people — and yes, many bots — spread the gospel of LIV, very few golf fans in real life take the league seriously. When I’m traveling for pro golf tournaments, I always make a point to ask fans about their interest in LIV Golf, and it is rare to hear positive feedback. When the feedback is positive, more often than not, it’s communicated with an Australian accent. 

Still, until the last month, there weren’t many visible signs that the lack of traction would force LIV to throw in the towel. If you were inclined to believe some of the narratives spun online, you could convince yourself LIV was still on track with its long-term goals. The veneer of foolishness is starting to crack now, even among its most ardent and disingenuous defenders. 

For the good of the sport, I hope an organization outside the PGA Tour succeeds and competes both for labor and fans’ attention spans. Pre-LIV, the PGA Tour clearly operated in an anti-competitive environment, to the detriment of players and fans alike. But unless something changes drastically, LIV doesn’t look like a viable competitor. 

LIV Golf isn’t dead — CEO Scott O’Neil says funding is secured through year’s end — but beyond that, more capital will be required. There is still golf to be played, so to speak. But the direction of the league is giving Fyre Fest. 

Justin Rose Changes Gears

The biggest equipment news of the year broke on Monday: McLaren Golf announced Justin Rose as its first Tour ambassador. We talked about the announcement a little bit on Monday.

My initial reaction was: what the hell is Rose doing? 

At the height of his powers, Rose made a similar move in January 2019, signing with Honma, a new, unproven manufacturer. At the time, he was ranked No. 2 in the world. The experiment did not last long. He quickly tumbled out of the top 10 in the world and abandoned the deal just over a year later. 

Now, back inside the top five for the first time since his failed Honma experiment, Rose is running back a similar play, again signing with a new manufacturer. 

But after hearing him speak Tuesday in Miami ahead of the Cadillac Championship, I am slightly more optimistic about Rose’s future, though I remain dubious of the decision.

I understand the appeal of working closely with a committed partner who can customize equipment specifications in accordance with preferences. Still, despite Rose’s framing, this is a huge gamble. 

Even with experienced engineers, new technology takes time. The McLaren line could end up being the best set of irons in the world, or this could be déjà vu at a stage of Rose’s career he cannot afford to jeopardize. 

At 45 years old, Rose held the Masters lead with nine holes to play just weeks ago. He is playing elite golf, but how many more bites at the apple does he have left? Let’s assume he stays healthy and sharp through 2027. That’s seven more cracks at a major championship. A move that introduces an element of doubt in the short-term is highly risky for a player with as short a runway ahead of him as Rose has. 

I will reserve judgment on the clubs until we see them in action — and I am open to the possibility that the clubs will perform — but this is one of the most compelling equipment storylines to monitor in the game: an all-time great iron player putting an unproven commodity in the bag at the twilight of his career.