LIV Golf is taking an unprecedented step to better position itself to attract a larger television audience.
The Saudi-funded breakaway golf league will play its first event of the season in about two weeks time in the city of Riyadh, but it will look quite different than your typical professional golf tournament. That’s because LIV has decided to contest the tournament at nighttime, under the lights, to accommodate an American television audience.
According to a report by Matt Vincenzi in Sports Illustrated, LIV’s patented shotgun start will sound off at 6:15 p.m. local time in Saudi Arabia, while it is 10:15 a.m. on the East Coast of the United States. The move was made to accommodate its new broadcast partner Fox, who the league recently signed a multi-year media rights deal with.
Further, Golf Digest writer Joel Beall reports that this likely will not be the only event LIV plays at night in an effort to accommodate Fox.
The decision to play under the lights is certainly another differentiator for LIV Golf, who has struggled to gain traction from a television perspective in its first two full seasons. Its new deal with Fox should help exposure, though whether the league will actually gain viewership versus its previous broadcast deal with The CW is quite uncertain.
Shifting its start times to more U.S.-friendly hours will help that effort.
The risk with this move is that it will add to LIV’s sideshow energy. The league is already famous for blasting music on the course and creating an environment that feels a bit more like a nightclub than a golf tournament. If the nighttime starts begin to peeve players and spark complaints about competitive integrity, the move could backfire.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.