LIV Golf found out the hard way that while it has an exclusive television partnership with the CW Network, the upstart league is still not a priority for local American television partners.
LIV Golf is back in 2023 after making serious waves during its inaugural season last year. In 2022, the new professional golf tour backed by an arm of the Saudi Arabian government became public enemy number one for established leagues like the PGA Tour and DP World Tour by luring away elite talent with massive signing bonuses and event winnings.
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However, it has not always been smooth sailing for LIV Golf despite having a massive amount of money to throw at growing. The PGA fought back by banning players from competing in both leagues, and the Official World Golf Ranking does not recognize LIV players. This means those golfers will continue to plummet down the rankings and eventually be ineligible to compete in the majors.
Furthermore, it took LIV Golf a very long-time to land a television deal in the United States due to many networks and streamers being uninterested in working with a league connected to a government with a long resume of human rights violations. The entire first season was streamed on Facebook, but that changed earlier this year when the tour and the CW Network aligned to air events in the US.
Next LIV Golf event: Trump National Washington, D.C
Unfortunately, LIV found out this week that their product is still not a major priority for the B-level national broadcaster. On Sunday afternoon, things got very interesting in the final round of LIV’s event in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Big-ticket addition Dustin Johnson nailed a birdie that created a tie at the top of the leaderboard and forced a three-way playoff with Branden Grace and Cameron Smith. However, many fans in the US were unable to watch the rest of the event on CW stations.
Following the birdie, many CW regional stations decided to cut away from the playoff to play previously scheduled programming instead of staying on a thrilling finish to LIV Golf’s Tulsa event. The broadcast let viewers know that they would soon be cutting away and the rest of the tournament could be viewed on the CW app.
However, local networks did not end coverage to focus on content with huge audiences like the NFL, college football, the NBA, or even WWE. No, the CW Networks actually disrespected their new and only major sports content by choosing to show local news programs, sitcom reruns, and in some cases infomercials. Even the local CW affiliate in Tulsa left coverage.
That is not a good look for a league trying to gain a foothold in the biggest sports market in the world when its TV partner doesn’t seem to care that much about it.