Paul McGinley feels that the players have been the big winners in golf’s civil war but that the belief in DP World Tour circles was that LIV Golf’s mega bucks approach to the men’s game was always going to be unsustainable.
The Saudi PIF look set to end funding for the breakaway tour at the end of the 2026 season, where Irish players Tom McKibbin and Graeme McDowell ply their trade, having pumped more than $5m into it since its inception in 2022.
LIV events carry a purse of $30m while the PGA Tour retaliated with ‘Signature Events’ with purses of $20m as the DP World Tour players also competed for record prize pools. All unsustainable in the long term, but over the last five years McGinley feels the players have been the big winners financially while the normal golf fan has lost out to diluted products across the board with the best players being separated far too often.
“Unsustainable is the word. We always felt in Europe that it was going to be unsustainable,” McGinley told IrishGolfer.ie when asked for his immediate reaction to the ongoing LIV situation. “That decision to have a strategic alliance with the PGA Tour has been proven right. It was the risk averse decision to align with America rather than going with the new idea that the Saudis were bringing to the table.
“Everybody in golf has lost over the last five years except the players. Players are playing for huge prize funds on the DP World Tour, PGA Tour and LIV. Way bigger than if LIV hadn’t have come along. The biggest loser has been the public, they are paying more money to attend events, more money for food and drink at events and when they switch on their TV at night they are getting a diluted product where the best players are not playing together as regularly as they were. The sponsors are having to pay more money, the tours have got bigger overheads so everybody has lost around here except the players. There may well be a reset in the business model of golf.”
LIV Golf always struggled for a broadcasting home, with TNT taking it on for the 2026 season. McGinley is of the opinion that the golf market just is not big enough to cater for three tours and without a viable broadcasting model it was going to be near impossible for the Saudi disruptors to find a true home in the men’s professional landscape while they continued to hemorrhage money.
“The prize money and the signing on fees that they were putting in we always knew it was going to be difficult if not impossible, the market just isn’t big enough out there,” added McGinley. “Think of the time zones in the rest of the world, it’s hard to get TV rights, you might get TV rights in one country but when you are dealing with five, six, seven, eight hour time differences it’s hard to get a big TV company that’s going to give you a lot of money. TV money is so important to the business model of golf.”
As well as the players, McGinley said that the four major championships and the Ryder Cup have also benefited from the chasm in the men’s professional game with those five events being the only time the cream of the crop are competing against each other with some interesting PGA Tour vs LIV subplots coming to the fore in each competition.
“The other winners have been the four majors and Ryder Cup, those brands have increased in value over the last five years,” said the 2014 Ryder Cup captain. “The tours in Europe and America have now got much bigger overheads than before LIV came and they are battling to create a business model that will bring in more money.”
Brooks Koepka rejoined the PGA Tour earlier this year while Patrick Reed will complete his community service on the DP World Tour before being eligible again. It is expected that the Stateside circuit will cherrypick Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau but the DP World Tour could be strengthened by the return of some household European names and some other LIV outcasts should the Saudi backed tour cease to exist.
Prize funds on the PGA Tour could decrease as well without the imminent threat of LIV Golf meaning that the power could be handed back to the sponsors. However, McGinley warned that new PGA Tour Commissioner Brian Rolapp has a big challenge to get the best players in the world competing on the PGA Tour on a regular basis with the signature events not serving its purpose of doing so.
Rory McIlroy is absent from Trump Doral this week while Scottie Scheffler is a no go for the Truist Championship next week. The future of the PGA Tour’s product remains uncertain amidst the LIV situation.
“It will be interesting to see what the tours do if the players are going to be integrated back in again, how will they do that? They have to be fair to the guys who have been loyal to the tours and taken the spots of the LIV players who have gone.
“Brian Rolapp will have the answers, he will renegotiate the TV deals over the next couple of years and that will determine whether $20m is going to be sustainable or not. It’s difficult going to a sponsor, it’s not only the prize money that the sponsor has to put in, they have to promote the event and often the cheque is double what the prize fund is to put on an event.
“That’s OK if you have the world’s best players committed to play but you have a situation this week where Rory isn’t playing, Scottie isn’t playing next week, these are signature events. This idea that the players are independent contractors but it isn’t great for the business model of golf.”
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