LIV Golf Is Finished. Was Any Of It Worth It

Ding-dong, the LIV is dead.

After more than four years of hot air about changing the sport forever, the league came to an unceremonious end Thursday in a New Jersey bankruptcy court.

LIV's attorneys confirmed the circuit will wind down its business rather than proceed with the proposed LIV 2.0. Which, let's be honest, it was going to be a somehow more epic waste of everyone's time than the original version.

BC Partners Credit, the investment firm that had been lined up to help finance a relaunch, pulled out of its proposed $300-million deal this week.

As Front Office Sports reported, the league could not get the necessary parties (the players) to agree to a financially viable version of its next chapter.

That's it. No more next chapters. LIV is done.

The legal cleanup will continue, of course. We'll inevitably talk about how these players move forward (mostly on the DP World Tour).

But the idea that LIV will emerge from bankruptcy and return as a functioning golf league has reached its merciful end.

Yes, LIV has been a content machine, but I'm grateful it's over.

I've been writing about LIV being a sham since the very first column I ever penned for MGS nearly three years ago.

If you've been a reader, you know my opinion has been steadfast.

Nobody really cared about the product from day one because exhibition team golf with dumb logos, shotgun starts and no stakes was inherently unserious and deeply boring. Everything about the league was hamfisted. The Saudi ties were troubling but not nearly as problematic as the stunning lack of entertainment.

People cared about the disruption-family and friends who couldn't care less about golf asked me about LIV more than any other topic in our game-but they didn't care about the product itself.

Fans showed up in certain golf-starved places, but they rarely tuned in on their TVs.

No viewership, no TV contract, no functioning business (once the Saudis jumped ship).

It couldn't work with a bottomless wallet (in excess of $5 billion), so it naturally wasn't going to work on a shoestring budget. I'm stunned the song and dance made it this long.

In 50 years, how will we remember LIV?

Mostly for its pointlessness, I would say.

LIV spent years selling the idea that it represented professional golf's future. Golf but louder. Reimagining the traditional form of the game.

Yet all of that was bluster. A head fake. A blatant misdirection only the biggest fools and Twitter bots would believe.

LIV never cared about making golf better or working with stakeholders. Its intentions were political; when the political winds shifted, the charade was quickly dropped.

I don't blame the players for wanting to get paid. That was always the most understandable part of this. If you want to take a massive payday as you sail off into your uncompetitive sunset, take it. I was harder on the Jon Rahms of the world for mortgaging part of their prime, but most of LIV didn't have that problem.

It was hazard pay for the reputation hit. That's what the money is for.

But the speeches about doing something heroic for golf framed all of this in a comical light from the beginning.

LIV players did virtually nothing of value. Their efforts were largely meaningless when finances were subtracted.

Remember when LIV players said they were joining the league to spend more time with their families? Or to grow the game? Yeah, it was bullshit. Guys are now using the family excuse to leave LIV. Which was it, Sergio? And their efforts (collecting ridiculous checks in front of ghosts in Riyadh) grew the game no farther than a topped drive.

Everyone with half a fraction of a brain cell knew it was exclusively about the money. Dustin Johnson said it plainly, which was far more commendable than many others who were puppets for the Saudis.

Those who made that choice will be remembered for how they rationalized their actions.

The obvious defense of LIV is that it forced the PGA Tour to change.

That argument has serious merit. The Tour faced pressure to pay its players more and improve its offering when a rival started taking its stars. Anyone pretending LIV had no influence on where the Tour ended up is being disingenuous.

But being an effective threat to another business doesn't mean you built a successful business yourself.

And, more importantly, what did the fan get out of it?

We got years of fractured fields. We got endless conversations about contracts, lawsuits and whether two organizations might eventually agree to something. We got tournament coverage competing with another round of speculation about who was leaving and who might come back.

For a sport that already asks a lot of its audience, this was an incredible amount of mindless homework.

The soap opera element of it was wildly entertaining at times (surely you jest).

But beyond that, the "reward" was getting to watch fewer of the best players compete against each other outside the majors. And the LIV players faltered horribly at the majors.

Some people enjoyed LIV. I heard you, believe me.

There were individual tournaments and performances worth watching (Anthony Kim). I'm sure fans who had a great experience at an event don't need me explaining why they shouldn't have enjoyed themselves. Hey, I went to an event, too! It was fun!

But an enjoyable one-off week somewhere in the world was never enough to answer the larger question of how this league would support itself.

The bankruptcy court now has the answer to that one.

I just want to watch professional golf without having to wonder which version of a proposed business arrangement will survive until next Tuesday.

But the Tour shouldn't confuse LIV's failure with proof that everything about its own product is wonderful.

There are still too many weeks that feel interchangeable. There are still broadcasts that make following the actual competition harder than it needs to be. There is still far too much energy devoted to explaining how much money everyone is making.

LIV disappearing doesn't fix any of that.

The Tour has an opportunity to give fans a better version of pro golf. That starts with figuring out a sensible way forward for returning players and putting the strongest possible competition in front of people.

There should be accountability for decisions players made. I've written about those complications before. But I have very little interest in spending the next five years watching golf administer punishment to itself.

Get the rules sorted out. Make the pathways clear. Give people a reason to care about the tournaments again.

What should LIV be remembered for?

An enormous amount of money was spent. Players got rich. Relationships were damaged. Fans spent years hearing that a divided sport was somehow the necessary first step toward something better.

We'll need more time to truly grade its effect. If the Tour's new model is successful, that matters to LIV's legacy.

But with the resources LIV had, it got an opportunity most sports leagues could only dream of receiving.

It could have changed the course of golf history far more if the league was managed better.

Instead, it could barely get off the first tee.

The players and executives will have their own assessments of whether it was worth it. As someone who watches and writes about golf for a living, I'm struggling to see what the audience gained that justified all of this.

I'm relieved it's over. Yes, even the content.

What do you think LIV's legacy will be? Let me know below in the comments.