The LIV Golf tour, the controversial golf tour backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), has revealed the calendar for its 2024 regular season, with the tour set to visit Las Vegas in the US for the first time.
The Las Vegas Country Club will host the first LIV Golf event in the city between February 8 and February 10, 2024.
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Other first-time LIV Golf event hosts in the US include Houston, Texas (Golf Club of Houston), Nashville, Tennessee (The Grove), and potentially one more, as there is the as-yet undecided location of the April 5-7 US-based event.
Hong Kong will also host a LIV Golf event for the first time, between March 8 and March 10 at the Hong Kong Golf Club.
Like the 2023 edition, the 2024 LIV Golf League will begin at the El Camaleón Golf Course in Mexico, with 11 further regular season events to follow, before the individual championship and team championship post-season events, which are yet to be announced.
The US is the biggest golf market in the world, and as such a plurality of the tour’s events take place in the country, however the league’s expansion into Hong Kong and continued commitment to Spain, Singapore, Mexico, Australia, the UK, and of course Saudi Arabia, indicates the global aspirations of the tour.
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By GlobalDataGreg Norman, LIV Golf chief executive, stated: “We’re thrilled to announce an exciting slate of events that reflects our commitment to bringing world-class players and premier competition to new and repeat markets every year. Launching a new league is a massive undertaking, and we’re full steam ahead building off our incredibly successful first full season in 2023.”
LIV Golf airs in the US on the CW network, as part of a multi-year US media rights deal that the tour secured in January 2023.
That deal ended a long-running quest for LIV to secure a broadcast partner in the US, but it was condemned by various parties, including the National Press Club professional organization, due to the perception of LIV as a sportswashing project of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth Public Investment Fund.
Despite that, The CW Network, which has traditionally been entertainment-focused, went forward with the deal and announced an audience of 3.2 million across its linear and digital platforms for the LIV Golf League season opener in February.
The 2024 calendar comes despite reports that the circuit is to be shut down in favor of the PGA Tour once its proposed merger with the US tour is complete.
The PGA Tour and LIV Golf’s bitter dispute ended earlier this year after the US tour, the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour), and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth Public Investment Fund (which funds LIV Golf) announced a deal to effectively merge their respective series.
The US Senate has since launched an investigation into the planned partnership and earlier this month issued subpoenas to the PIF’s US subsidiaries to gain access to documents related to its ‘framework agreement’ with the PGA Tour and “related investments throughout the US” after the firm refused to voluntarily comply with the Senates original request.
According to the framework agreement, the for-profit assets of the three circuits will be combined into a new subsidiary tentatively called NewCo. After an evaluation of those assets, the PIF, which owns 93% of LIV Golf, will make a minority investment into the new entity.
