Rory McIlroy’s forecast that LIV Golf is not slowing down appears to be coming true, with the Saudi-backed league expanding yet again this week.
Bursting onto the professional golf scene in the summer of 2022, LIV’s threat along with Saudi Arabia’s backing was initially dismissed by those at the PGA Tour. Two years later, the league is positioned as one of golf’s leading circuits, shoulder to shoulder with the Tour.
This week saw Will Newell, the creative director of the Saudi-backed series, announce a new office launch in London. Posting on Instagram, Newell wrote “New London office opens this week. Fit out by Echospace London,” along with a set of photos.
Now having offices in London, Florida, and New York – the latter recently expanded due to increasing staff numbers – LIV’s growth has been acknowledged even by one of the league’s biggeet critics. “I certainly don’t see in the next couple of years LIV slowing down,” McIlroy said to Sports Illustrated in June.
“They’re buying office space in New York. They have over 200 employees. I don’t see a world where and I haven’t heard any of those guys say that they don’t want to play over there either, right? You’ve got guys who are on contracts until 2028, 2029. Looking a few years down the line, LIV is going to continue to sort of keep going down its path.
“But hopefully with maybe more of a collaboration or an understanding between the tours. Maybe there is some cross-pollenation there where players can start to play on both. I guess that will all be talked about in the coming weeks. “The only thing is there are so many tours and so many golf tournaments. There are only a certain amount of weeks in the year.
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That’s the complicated part. Trying to figure out which tournaments go where, when do we play them, how many players, what players.” In spite of their initial attempts to quell the advancement of their rivals, the PGA Tour was forced to perform a u-turn after announcing they had reached at a framework agreement with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) last June.
Over a year later though, no concrete deal has been completed. Recent reports suggest there has been some movement Fire Pit Collective’s Alan Shipnuck announced last month that a ‘draft agreement’ had been approved. That said, Jay Monahan, Tour commissioner, later issued a memo to his players explaining there was still more work to come.
Monahan penned: “Both parties recognize that there is still work to do to reach a final agreement. Our talks are ongoing with the goal of developing a shared vision for the future of professional golf that is pro-competitive and provides players with the best global opportunities.”
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