Say what you want to about LIV Golf and its future, but it is undeniable that its position in Australia is pretty secure. The Adelaide event smashed records, drawing 102,483 fans, a 9% spike from the prior year’s 94,000. On top of that, LIV Golf Adelaide 2025 blasted onto global screens, reaching 785 million households across over 100 territories, a whopping 50+% boost from 2024. With LIV Golf thriving in Australia’s hyper-competitive sports scene, you have to wonder: why isn’t the PGA Tour copying this playbook?
Well, there are several reasons for that. And no, it has nothing to do with the Tour dismissing the country’s history with sports. During a recent interview on The Smylie Show, Ian Baker-Finch tried to provide an answer for that. After Kaufman pointed out, “Because clearly it is [Australia] a place that is deprived of professional golf,” Baker-Finch agreed, replying, “Yes, it is.”
So why does LIV Golf have traction in Australia? Greg Norman’s legendary career definitely helped boost LIV’s popularity, but there’s more to it. LIV Golf now features several Aussie players like Cam Smith, Mark Leeman, Matt Jones, and Lucas Herbert. That’s a big drawcard. But the PGA Tour has even bigger stars like Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. Will they not attract a bigger crowd? They can, but the “time zone” doesn’t add up.
Playing tournaments ‘Down Under’ (Australia) means live broadcasts would likely land in the dead of night or crack of dawn in the US: a major hit to live viewership and sponsorship value. Baker-Finch explains the same, “the problem we face is the time zone, and that is why it’s so hard with US television, the most prolific of all of the sponsorship dollars that come into the PGA Tour. You know, I think it’s $750 million a year from television that comes in. They don’t really want to go to a 16-hour ahead time zone, and so that’s really the main reason it hasn’t happened.”
This point makes total sense. The PGA Tour’s joint partnership TV deal with the LPGA (locked in through 2030) rakes in a massive $700 million annually. And it’s been a cash cow for the men’s tour. In fact, back in 2021, reports showed the PGA Tour walked away with over 90 percent of the revenue from those joint domestic TV deals with the LPGA Tour.
Still, Baker-Finch is respectful of LIV Golf’s dominance in the region and said, “And it’s why LIV has prospered so much in Australia. We’re so happy for the Australian team and for them in Adelaide for a successful event,” and reiterated, “That being said, we also have to be respectful of the LIV players that come and play, and especially our Australian players on LIV.”
This season, LIV Golf extended its Adelaide schedule to 2031, a sign that the stop has been extremely successful. After all, the league did contribute a whopping $81.46 million in the South Australian economy this season. However, despite the high praise for LIV Golf successfully handling the “time zone” part of the tournaments, it’s not without its troubles. Especially for LIV Golf pros.
The dark side of the different LIV Golf tournament stops: exhaustion
What drew golfers to LIV Golf? Playing just 14 tournaments plus a season-ending Team Championship for bigger payouts was a big lure. Contrast that with the jam-packed PGA Tour schedule – in 2025 alone, January to August has 36 regular-season events plus three postseason events.
But LIV golfers face a grind as tough as PGA Tour pros. On The Colin Cowherd Podcast, golfer Kevin Na talked with Cowherd about playing in sweltering heat worldwide “day after day after day.” Cowherd asked if Na felt like him and fellow LIV pros were like “real athletes” playing in tough conditions. “I mean, there are moments watching you guys, and I’m like, ‘Phil Mickelson looks tired’. Do you think that’s an underrated part of even your LIV tour?” Cowherd asked.
via Imago
Na replied, “Oh, yeah. Singapore is extremely hot. In PGA Tour days, we played in Malaysia – extremely hot. Dallas this year was rough.” LIV’s tight schedule leaves little time to adjust to new places – players just have to perform. Na said when playing back-to-back events, “Your time zones are all off. We get up, spend all day on course, train, practice – we may not look like athletes, but we are.”
Golf isn’t a contact sport, but LIV Golf’s tough schedule pushes players hard like high-contact sports do. Na thinks they fit the athlete profile. With LIV growing yearly, things get more intense for Na, Phil Mickelson, and Ian Poulter. The 2026 schedule’s already raising eyebrows: lots of globe-trotting. LIV Golf heads to South Africa before the Masters, skips Dallas, but goes to Andalucia before the U.S. Open. That schedule might make it tough for top players to rest before majors.
