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LIV Golf’s team championship event is underway in Miami, and players and executives are optimistic about the league’s future.
Ahead of the season-ending tournament at Trump National Doral Golf Club, Bubba Watson said he had received interest from as many as 20 people about buying his team, the RangeGoats. “There was [sic] three in Singapore, and then after Singapore the floodgates opened,” he said. “There was even more. There’s been talk this week. I met with people this week. There’s quite a few.”
Team captains like Watson, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, and Brooks Koepka own their franchises and have the ability to sell equity in them.
Outside of potential team sales, expansion beyond the current 12 four-player franchises could be on the horizon. “We can accommodate up to 15 teams with the shotgun start,” LIV Golf chief operating officer Gary Davidson said. “I don’t think that we’ll get to 15 teams next year, but yeah, there’s a possibility that we may add a team or two.”
Playing The Field
Looking ahead, Mickelson made some ominous comments about more PGA Tour players joining LIV next year. “I’ve been fielding calls, as we all have, from players that are agents to PGA Tour players,” he said.
And amid an uncertain future as LIV’s backers at Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund negotiate with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour about unifying the pro golf landscape, LIV CEO Greg Norman isn’t concerned about the prospects for his league, which he says has “never been stronger.”
