How LIV Golf can stop sucking and actually revolutionize golf

Here’s a blank sheet of paper.?

Now write down all the things a new sports league could do to to attract a global audience.? The enemy? The existing pro tour that has been doing the same things for fifty years.?

This was the opportunity handed to the architects of the rebel golf league, LIV Golf two years ago. Here’s the blank sheet of paper—now go and dream up a product so much more compelling than the PGA tour.

How did they do??

They got a few things right. They signed some of the biggest names in golf. They played in countries rarely visited by the top golfers. And they organized into teams, franchises that might one day transcend the popularity of any one individual player.

But mostly they got it horrendously wrong.? Two years in and TV ratings for LIV Golf are microscopic, on course attendance thinner than Biden’s hair.

So what should have been on that blank sheet of paper? How can they pivot the product today?

Here are three strategies—pulled from the disciplines of brand management and customer experience design—that would help Liv attract a new global audience

One: Be Tribal

Sports teams transcend race, religion, and politics. If you and I support the same team we are one. We are members of the same tribe.?

Team golf is the one aspect of Liv that is a radical departure from the PGA tour. And it’s a great add. The biggest golf event in the world, the Ryder Cup, is a team competition.?

But the way Liv does teams just sucks. They’ve created teams with no sense of innate identity or affiliation. They have silly names like Stinger, Smash, and Legion.? They are useless constructs.

So what kind of teams might be thrilling to follow?

The most successful teams have a pre-existing association. The most obvious and powerful association is location—city, country, or region. Think Chicago Cubs, Liverpool FC, New England Patriots, Argentina winning the World Cup.

Golf has had tremendous success with team events that are based continental regionalism. The Solheim Cup is the US vs Europe. The President’s Cup is the US vs the rest of the world minus Europe. And then there’s the mongo mania machine of the Ryder Cup.?

The current roster of players for Liv Golf could easily fit into a geographic team structure. The teams could be:

• UK
• Europe
• Africa
• Asia (India, Japan, China, etc)
• Australasia (Australia, New Zealand, Fiji)
• Central & South America
• The US broken down into sub-regions: USA West, USA South, and USA North
• Canada

The current roster of Liv Players would fill out these teams nicely. For example:

UK:? Bland, Canter, Casey, Hatton, Horsefly, McDowell, Poulter

Africa: Burmester, Grace, Oosthuizen, Schwartzel and the and Vincent brothers

Europe: Kayner, Meronk, Pieters, Puig, Rahm, Samooja, and Stenson

USA West: Mickelson, Steele, Kim, Wolff, Perez, Tringale

USA South: Johnson, Howell, Watson, Gooch, Suratt, Varner, Reed

Central & South America: Ancer, Munoz, Niemann, Ortiz, Pereira

In the near term Liv would need to bring Asia and Australasia together which isn’t great—however if they signed Hideki, all the juice would flow to the Asia team.

And they don’t have players from Canada or players who easily fit into a third USA category. But all in all these nationality based teams are immediately more interesting and satisfying than something made up out of thin air.?

If nothing else all the non-USA teams would love to kick America’s ass.

So strategy one: tap into existing, deep rooted sense of tribal identity.

Two: Go ALL OUT

Brands simply need to be braver and bolder to stand out today. Our attention spans are shrinking by the month. We just don’t care enough to spend four days watching a golf tournament. We want the results today.?

One of the most successful new league launches in the world in the last fifty years is India’s Premier cricket league (the IPL). The IPL condensed days of cricket down to three hours or twenty ‘overs’ (innings) for each side. It’s created an absolute phenomenon. The broadcast rights for the IPL are the third most expensive behind the NFL and the Premier League.?

The reason why the IPL is so exciting isn’t just the condensed time. It’s the style of play. The players now have to take insane risks to score the most runs (points) in the shortened game. Risk taking is fuuuun to watch.?

Lastly, the IPL ditches tradition with flashy uniforms, cheerleaders, thumping music, fireworks and anything else they can steal from the NFL. It looks NOTHING like cricket from even twenty years ago.?

LIV moved in the right direction by shortening their events from the PGA tour’s four day tournaments to three. They also tried to make the game more brash and youthful (or ‘louder’ in LIV marketing parlance) by letting the players wear shorts; playing music on the first tee; and designing new onscreen graphics. BUT all in all, LIV golf looks and feels pretty much like a PGA event, just with no one watching.

So how do you make a golf tournament stand out for today’s short attention spans, incentivize risk taking, and truly amp up the fun—all the while INCREASING the audience’s respect for the players. Answer: You go all out.

To speed up play.?

• Imagine a game where six pro golfers tee off at the same time from their allotted spots. They all hit within, let’s say, a five second window. (Location on the tee is a strategic consideration and could either be used to even out the play or reward players).?
• Players use different colored balls that match their teams’ uniforms and these colors are used to track the shots through the air for folks watching on TV.?
• The golfers then jump on carts (color coordinated with the team brand look) to their next shot. On the green there would need to be some tweaking but it’s essentially ready golf.?
• And there’d be a shot clock—once the player arrives at a ball they’d have a minute to hit the shot. Tournament play is only 18 holes… totally doable in around three hours given the cart, shot clock etc.

To encourage risk taking and reward skill

• Make a birdie worth 1.5 under par, an eagle three under par and a par .5 over par!?
• Add and detract shots automatically. For example, any shot hit into a bunker is half a penalty stroke. Any chip-in is worth an extra 0.5 off your score.
• Play at courses that are harder. Literally, harder as in baked out. Think British Open venues where the ball runs fifty yards after a drive; there’s very little rough and rock hard greens. Play the ball more along the ground to encourage creativity.? This links golf style is loved by pros because it demands more strategy and skill.
• Players call the shot shape they are going for. Players are rewarded for hitting this shape by moving the ball closer to the hole on the green. For example, on a par five, a player calls for 20 degrees of hook off the tee—a ball that starts over the right tree line and ends up on the left side of the fairway. And he hits that exact shot. Then he has to hit a high fade with a three wood to hold the green. So again, he makes his call. He’ll start the ball at left tree line and cut it back, high, thirty yards. If he’s successful his ball is moved from thirty feet to the hole down to 10 feet (10 feet for each successful call). To make this process flow it’s the caddies who enters (draws?) the player’s calls into a digital dashboard that’s built into the pro bag.

To build fan excitement.?

• Sure, it's nice to have colorful uniforms and music and fireworks. But why the IPL works is really about fan engagement. It’s the difference between any regular hole on the PGA tour and the sixteenth hole at Phoenix. Clearly not every hole at every venue can be built out like that par three in Phoenix. But you can put your golf tournament in locations that are crazy for golf and starved of professional exposure. Adelaide in Australia was a great example last year on the LIV golf tour. Huge crowds. And huge crowds generate juice. They create that magical thing called atmosphere.

In today’s crowded, massively-mediated-everything world you have to be bold and brave to stand out. This doesn’t mean trampling on the game we all love. It just means amping up the things that makes these pros so amazing.

Three: Tell Better Stories

Wrestling is globally successful thanks to story telling. We all know wrestlers aren’t really hurting each other. It’s theater. And yet the storylines draws us in.?

Below the surface golf has all the same stories. Podcasts like “No Laying Up” have thrived by digging deep into these stories while broadcast media flounder around with the inauthentic bullshit put out by the tour’s PR departments.?

Here’s some storylines that LIV could use to stand out.

Villains Rule

A great story is never good vs more good. It’s good vs evil. What would Star Wars be without Darth Vader? Jaws without the shark?

Weirdly LIV Golf has tried to position all of its players as villains, or at least angry and bug-eyed in opposition to the PGA tour. Check out these player profile pics from the LiV website (and then below from the PGA tour).

This would be a GREAT strategy if LIV competed against the PGA Tour. LIV, the rebels and bad boys of golf vs. the PGA, the good kinda bland guys… that’s a story line that would attract interest.?

But that’s not today’s world. Today, LIV players compete against each other. So who are the villains and the heroes in LIV? What are the stories LIV should adopt?

Teams drive the narrative.?

• If LIV adopted the geographic team structure outlined above the villains fall along national lines. Americans believe they are the most exceptional, brilliant country on the planet. Americans from the south believe this even more so about their southern way of life. The rest of the world, in overly simple terms, fucking hates Americans. While secretly wanting to be American.?
• National character drives the narrative… Australians are laid back. The English prickly complainers. South Americans are swashbucklers. And Americans are the villains, the Goliaths all the Davids want to topple.?

Match play creates better story arcs.?

• I don’t understand why LIV events are all stroke play. In golf team play means match play. Match play is tough for the PGA tour because the last day is often a snooze fest with just two people playing. But with teams going head to head everyone is out on the course. Just like in the Ryder Cup. On any given day you could watch the USA South vs Europe, Asia vs the UK, USA West vs Central and South America. And so on.
• Just like in the Ryder cup a foursome would have two teammates from the same team playing in the match. This hypes up the camaraderie and the celebrations. Match play is also inherently easier to follow in a team format than stroke. Who is winning at any one point in time is easy math.
• Match play is a game within a game. Every hole is a game. It’s win or lose every fifteen minutes. This means match play amps up the risk taking and strategy. It also amps up the intangible of momentum. Team momentum is magic. How many times have we seen a player down three holes with four to go only to win the next three and create beautiful drama down the last?

Love or hate. Yes, to both.

• Brands are strong because people love them. AND, yes, hate them. I love my Subaru but my sports car owning best friend thinks they are awful tin cans. He hates Subarus (and essentially any car with a CVT transmission).
• The PGA tour is way worse off with the loss of so many good players to LIV. But what it really loses are the strong personalities who have left, the players who attract a strong response, players we love and players we hate. Enter Patrick Reed.
• I personally love Patrick Reed. No, that’s not right. I love to root against Patrick Reed. When he climbs the leader board at the Masters I groan and delight in equal measure. Why do I root against him? Because of his storyline… he cheats, his wife is a maniac, he sues people left and right, he’s chubby and looks so entitled. And yet he’s also just so good and doesn’t seem to care about any of the negative stuff. It’s the same thing with Ian Poulter at the Ryder Cup. He stalks the course like Darth Vader about to throttle a woeful general. Those eyes start bugging out. He yells and throws clubs. He acts demented. And I LOVE it.
• Villains then aren’t evil. They just have actual personalities. I love Koepka’s angry swagger. I love Phil’s know-it-all genius. I love Wolff’s middle finger to the game. I love Hatton’s meltdowns and comebacks.?
• What if LIV golf recruited players for their personalities as much as their golf??

So there you have it. Three strategies, based on brand and experience design, to enhance the current LIV golf product. You’ll notice that I haven’t mentioned money once in this article. I’m glad professional athletes are well paid but I don’t care if a winner makes a million or four million. Money doesn’t drive audience engagement.?

Instead you grow your audience and sell more product by executing against this simple roadmap: think tribal, be brave, and tell authentic stories people love and, yes, hate.