Right now, professional golf finds itself split in two, and that divide began when LIV Golf started pulling big names away from the PGA Tour. LIV launched in 2022, and it didn’t take long for players like Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson to make the switch.
Right now, professional golf finds itself split in two, and that divide began when LIV Golf started pulling big names away from the PGA Tour.
LIV launched in 2022, and it didn’t take long for players like Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson to make the switch.
Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton joined them about a year or so later. Rahm made his move at the end of 2023, with Hatton following in early 2024. That period felt like a turning point, as LIV seemed to be gaining some serious traction.
In recent years though, momentum has clearly swung back towards the PGA Tour.
The pressure on LIV ramped up even more when Brooks Koepka returned to the PGA Tour in December 2025.
LIV are definitely behind the eight-ball at this point, and their inability to bring in top-level talent during the off-season hasn’t gone unnoticed.
There are only four genuine ‘needle-movers’ in the professional game
According to Rex Hoggard, there are only four genuine needle-movers in the professional game right now.
He named those players during a recent appearance on The Golf Channel Podcast with Rex and Lav.
“Tiger at that moment in time in all sports, just not golf, was a genuine superstar,” he said.
“Those players don’t come along very often, and I would turn this back on you and challenge you, how many needle-movers are there actually in the game right now?
“I would say Rory McIlroy is clearly one of them. Bryson is one of them. I think Scottie Scheffler is one of them, but I don’t know that you could say that from a marketing perspective.”
Lavner then responded by saying Scheffler definitely is, in fact, a needle-mover.
He said: “Scottie is. People like watching a dominant player, and Scottie is that. He’s a needle-mover.”
“Jordan Spieth for a lot of different reasons,” Hoggard added.
Scheffler has been allowed to return to play on the PGA Tour but recently admitted he still wants to play LIV events as well as go head-to-head against Koepka again.
Does LIV Golf have a path back to relevance?
Hoggard is right in saying that it will be hard for LIV to bring in a true needle-mover from the PGA Tour.
Still, the situation could shift quickly if they manage to secure world ranking points.
If that happens, we might see more PGA Tour players start to consider making the switch.
Spieth seems like the only realistic target out of those three right now, but even that isn’t a given. It would depend on his form over the next year or two and whether LIV gains recognition from the Official World Golf Rankings.
Until then, the PGA Tour is likely to remain well ahead of LIV in both viewership and sponsorship.
Category: General Sports
