43,000 fans lined the fairways at JCB Golf and Country Club for LIV Golf UK including an increase of youth attendance by more than 75% and after covering my first LIV event on site this week, it’s clear to see that the younger generation are the target audience.
Tyrrell Hatton described it as a football atmosphere and he was spot on. You can imagine some of the shouts!
LIV Golf UK served up an exciting Sunday as Chilean star Joaquin Niemann held off a thrilling back nine rally from Bubba Watson to eventually ease to a three-shot win for his fifth victory of the season.
But LIV is about so much more than what happens at the top of the leaderboard and the tour showed in spades both its ability to innovate and go way over the top.
Below is a list of what I believe LIV did well this week and what did not work.
THE WINNERS
The Driving Range
Once 12:55 comes and the players scatter off to their respective tee boxes for the 13:05 shotgun start, the practice facilities are eerily quiet. It’s very rare that you see a completely empty driving range at a professional golf event.
It’s only then do you realise that having music pumping across the practice ground actually works.
The driving range is a scene one hour before play commences each day with the crowds three deep behind the fence as absolutely every player competing bashes balls at various targets as pop nightclub music plays.
There’s certainly a lot more going on here than your usual tour event driving range which after ten minutes can get very boring.
Bryson hitting bombs, Bubba curling and swerving, the rapid repetition of Jon Rahm’s short and snappy swing. LIV Golf wants to create a festival atmosphere and the party definitely starts on the driving range.
Shotgun start
It’s not your average Captain’s Prize out here.
But the shotgun start, upon considerable reflection, works.
The shotgun start, particularly on Sunday evening, created a race against time element. And I feel it added a lot to the team competition. It gives the middle of the road players of the week something to play for. Just make as many birdies as you can.
From a pace of play point of view it helps. The Open Championship was plagued by six hour days while LIV UK rounds managed to hover around the five hour mark which felt a lot quicker because everyone was playing at the same time.
It also helps get an atmosphere on the course early. The crowd funnelled in between 11-12 each day before they scurried to their favourite positions on the golf course.
The Party Hole
“Ohhh Bryson DeChambeau, ohhh Bryson DeChambeau.”
If this was on the PGA Tour people would wax lyrical about the innovation of having a stadium like atmosphere on a par-3. Queue the “once a year is great.”
LIV go a step further with the par-3 14th and while they can be guilty of being too in your face they strike the right chord here.
An on the tee DJ, playing music throughout the day, complimentary beers (when you pay for the right ticket obviously, the Saudis aren’t that generous), player chants and an on the tee announcer, it’s a spectacle to stand at the ropes for an hour or so.
The energy can fizzle out when the likes of Abraham Ancer and Andy Ogletree walk through the player tunnel. I mean, come on, who the heck are they really?
But when the big hitters emerge from the tunnel, the party hole reaches fever pitch.
The only mark against the hole is the person announcing the players as they leave the 14th green. That doesn’t work.
LIV’s goal is to innovate and make golf louder, make it attractive for younger fans. They are doing nothing new by having a hole like this but their version of it also works a treat.
The music (just about)
It was fine for a day, but on day two I had a headache, then by day three I came around and I can see how it works.
I’m happy when the music played isn’t some techno nonsense bleeding my left eardrum.
Speaking to a player at the conclusion of the event, he said the music makes him wonder how boring normal golf must be to watch.
The on course music blends into everything. While annoying depending on the genre, it’s part of the LIV appeal and does make the day flow quicker than a normal tournament round.
It makes pace of play feel quicker. Perhaps it’s just your brain being constantly engaged by the speakers which are in place on every tee, fairway and green.
Production
Unlike my colleague Peter Finnan whose Sunday night is built around what time LIV starts on the television, I usually have better things to do with my life, and not down to the lack of a dodgy box.
So, sitting in the media centre when not out on the golf course, the big screen plays the TV broadcast of LIV and it’s a great success.
No ads, constant flow, no pointless fillers of a player on three-over holing from 300-feet for a pointless birdie.
The 30-second recaps to bring you up to date with how the teams are doing by showing a quick reel of putts held and shots hit close to pins is a good addition.
THE LOSERS
The first tee
Jesus bloody wept.
What an absolute farce this turned out to be.
Golf turned full Wrestlemania, it just did not work.
In fairness to LIV, there wasn’t much they could do here because logistically the first tee at JCB Golf and Country Club does not lend itself to the stadium atmosphere they are trying to create with three sided and larger grandstands commonplace across the circuit.
The opening hole here just doesn’t allow for that, it’s too small and its location is cut off from the rest of the course so it feels like you are leaving the hub to catch a glimpse of something that was completely overrated throughout the week.
Even so, taking into account that the production is the same each week, I’m not entirely sure that the first tee experience is all that.
LIV are trying to replicate the Ryder Cup. However, Ryder Cup fans don’t need any prompts to start singing, there was just something forced about the LIV UK first tee.
The grandstand was far too small for this crescendo of chaos they are trying to create. LIV’s festival atmosphere doesn’t carry to this part of the golf course.
The thumping music continues as players are announced on the tee in a style crossing between a Spanish commentator and a Royal Rumble WWE announcer. What?
Not to mention the disastrous attempt from the first tee announcer to whip up the crowd into a frenzy. That responsibility should be on the players and if you followed Bubba Watson hitting drivers off the deck onto the green twice, you got value for money!
The shotgun start does create a sense of suspense and drama but LIV’s obsessive desire to be different and so in your face – like Michael Murphy off the ball – renders the shotgun and crowd inaudible and leaves us all in a cloud of smoke from the completely unnecessary fireworks.
Cringe-worthy fillers
The only negative of the coverage is that some of the pieces to camera from the on course commentators and presenters are just horrendous.
David Feherty is a walking cringe machine just painful to watch.
The TV broadcast did a segment inside the Majesticks pub. Like Hatton eluded to, it gave an insight of English football fan culture, you can imagine what it was like.
LIV’s promotion of alcohol consumption shows that irony falls deaf on the ears of their Saudi backers.
The fan culture
Understandably, LIV are trying to attract a younger audience and get them boozed up and make it golf’s answer to Electric Picnic. But no matter what tour, wherever in the world, golf is for everyone.
LIV Golf provides a great opportunity to get up close and personal with some of the biggest names in the world, vantage points you wouldn’t be afforded at a regular PGA Tour event or major championship due to the larger crowds around featured groups.
But the constant whirring of music just isn’t accommodating to the older golf fan and I feel LIV could tweak this to avoid shanking themselves.
Also some of the shouts from the English fans are annoying. At least the Americans can be funny… on a very rare occasion.
But that’s par for the course I guess. LIV wants you to be loud, but there’s a time and a place.
The marshals
Holding up a sign that says Zip it shows how LIV is trying to appeal to a younger audience, but these guys are about as much use as a glass hammer.
Why tell the crowd to be quiet when they can barely hear themselves over the speakers?
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