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LIV Golf is set to head into its 2025 season with a new media-rights deal and a replacement for its controversial leader, Greg Norman.
The league made two key formal announcements this week as it gears up for its season opener in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Feb. 6–8.
Fox Sports has signed a multiyear media-rights deal to become LIV’s sole U.S. broadcast partner, following the past two seasons with The CW. Airing on the main Fox network will give LIV its best TV exposure yet. Some rounds will also air on the cable channels FS1, FS2, and even Fox Business Network.
LIV’s recent schedule shift was likely made in accordance with the crowded sports slate on Fox, which is paying an undisclosed rights fee. LIV’s season will end in late August—earlier than it has in the past three seasons—and for the first time on the same weekend as the PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship.
Fox has a heavy dose of college football and NFL broadcasts on Saturdays and Sundays in the fall, which would have likely reduced LIV’s placement on its networks.
Shift at the Top
LIV has also announced the hire of Scott O’Neil as its new CEO, replacing Norman, who is handing off the day-to-day management duties he had as CEO and commissioner, but he will remain involved with LIV.
Norman took a mostly adversarial approach toward the PGA Tour since LIV’s launch in 2022, so finding a new leader could smooth things out between the two tours, as LIV’s financial backers at the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia continue to work on a deal with the PGA Tour to unify men’s professional golf.
O’Neil has a deep sports history, and he was previously the CEO of 76ers and Devils parent company Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment. His relationships from that job should be valuable for LIV. For example, David Blitzer is a co-owner alongside Tiger Woods of Jupiter Links Golf Club, one of six teams in TGL, the new indoor golf league that launched this month and has backing from the PGA Tour.
Trump’s Impact on Golf
The state of the PIF–PGA Tour negotiations could speed up after President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration Monday.
LIV will once again play at the Trump National Doral Golf Club in South Florida in April, and Trump has previously said he could get a PIF–PGA Tour deal done “in the better part of 15 minutes.”
The Department of Justice is also expected to be more merger-friendly under Trump’s administration, which would be a positive sign for the tours.
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