7 large adjustments proposed within the new Saudi-backed golf league

In the end, the rumors have been confirmed.

On Wednesday, Greg Norman’s Saudi-backed LIV Golf Investments formally introduced the creation of a brand new, worldwide golf collection with plans to play eight occasions in 2022. The collection, which is scheduled to start on June 9 in London and conclude on Oct. 30 in a still-to-be-announced location, marks the primary main growth within the creation of a rival league to the PGA Tour.

The collection continues to be in its infancy, however will type what LIV Golf calls “the constructing blocks of a subsequent era golf expertise.”

“In some ways, we’re a start-up,” Norman, the agency’s CEO, mentioned. “We’ve a long-term imaginative and prescient and goal to develop. I imagine we’ve a really vivid and thrilling future.”

If Wednesday’s launch is any indication, LIV Golf has no scarcity of economic backing. In 2022, the collection will doll out some $250 million in purse prizes, drawing from some $400 million in seed funding.

However that’s solely the place the adjustments start for the league, which may even function a group format and new participant draft earlier than each match. Under are seven important adjustments proposed by LIV Golf in Wednesday’s announcement.

1. A group format

For so long as LIV Golf has been within the golf consciousness, rumors of a team-based format have swirled round it. Wednesday’s ‘Invitational Sequence’ announcement confirmed these rumors, however stopped in need of confirming what the format would appear like.

In response to the discharge, a most of 48 gamers will make up 12, four-man groups at every of LIV Golf’s eight occasions. Every of the primary seven occasions on the Invitational Sequence schedule pays out $20 million to the sector — with $5 million put aside for the highest three groups. After the seventh occasion, the league’s top-three gamers will take dwelling a piece of a $30 million purse (a la, the FedEx Cup).

The eighth occasion on the schedule, nonetheless, will crown a group champion, and can function some $50 million in prize cash.

2. A (weekly) participant draft

LIV Golf’s proposed setup is supposed to maintain the collection in a state of fixed flux, which means that groups is not going to stay the identical for multiple week at a time. Quite, every of the 12 group captains will draft a brand new group from the pool of obtainable gamers earlier than each match.

3. Shotgun begins

One main flaw within the present PGA Tour construction, within the eyes of LIV Golf Investments broadcast guide David Hill, is that golf followers can activate the ultimate spherical of an occasion on tv and nonetheless wait to see their favourite gamers.

That received’t be an issue for LIV Golf, the place every match will start with a shotgun begin. Each participant within the subject will likely be competing with each different participant concurrently which, if nothing else, ought to make for entertaining tv.

4. Goodbye, 72-hole occasions

One other LIV Golf emphasis is rushing up the sport’s tempo. One of the best ways to do this? Shorten the variety of holes wanted to finish an occasion. Every of the proposed dates on the LIV Golf schedule runs solely three days, which suggests we’ll see champions topped after 54 holes.

5. No cuts

With a max of simply 48 gamers within the subject (some PGA Tour occasions may have as many as 150), each participant competing in a LIV Golf occasion is assured to make the lower, and is assured a paycheck.

6. A shorter schedule

The oldsters over at LIV Golf should imagine much less is extra. Simply eight occasions will dwell on the Invitational Sequence schedule in 2022, a stark change from the jam-packed weeks of the PGA Tour wraparound schedule.

7. *Large* purses

On Monday, the PGA Tour handed out its largest-ever particular person match purse on the Gamers Championship: $20 million.

The *minimal* LIV Golf purse will relaxation at $25 million, elevating as excessive as $50 million for the collection’ season-ending group occasion.

For the yr, the general worth of LIV Golf’s prize cash is $255 million, or a little bit greater than half of the PGA Tour’s $427 million.

James Colgan

Golf.com Editor

James Colgan is an assistant editor at GOLF, contributing tales for the web site and journal on a broad vary of subjects. He writes the Scorching Mic, GOLF’s weekly media column, and makes use of his broadcast expertise throughout the model’s social media and video platforms. A 2019 graduate of Syracuse College, James — and evidently, his golf recreation — continues to be defrosting from 4 years within the snow, throughout which era he lower his enamel at NFL Movies, CBS Information and Fox Sports activities. Previous to becoming a member of GOLF, James was a caddie scholarship recipient (and astute looper) on Lengthy Island, the place he’s from.