The LIV Golf CEO has set his sights on huge goals for the PIF-funded promotion. He honestly believes that the league can be the premier competition in golf, and he is doing everything to help it reach higher goals. However, all his efforts in the last year have proven him wrong despite their impact on LIV Golf’s status in the sport.

Before the 2025 season began, O’Neil complained that he didn’t have enough time to prepare for the role. He was rushed into the setup and still did his best to help it succeed. He pushed the idea of LIV Golf Riyadh scheduled in the evening to be more suitable for the American prime-time audience. That didn’t yield any positive results last season. They only managed to get 19,000 average viewers across 54 holes.

Nothing much changed about the same fixture this year as well. The LIV Golf CEO once again ran with the Riyadh event being played after sundown. Compared to last year, the 2026 edition of the event did see better viewership. But the viewership only grew to 23,000 average viewers across four days on Fox Sports, FS1, and FS2.

The negligible growth may not bode well with O’Neil. Especially after all the major changes his office has made to be more acceptable to the mass audience. The biggest complaint players and fans had with LIV Golf was its status in golf. Without an OWGR authorization, even those within their roster didn’t trust them. And the CEO completely shook up the league to ensure that changes for 2026.

O’Neil changed the format of the league from 54 holes to 72 holes for the 2026 season. He created better pathways for players to receive contracts through the Promotions events. The CEO was also constantly negotiating with Trevor Immelman and the OWGR to find a solution.

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In the end, they awarded a modified OWGR status to LIV Golf. Only the top-10 and ties in every event were made eligible to receive world ranking points. O’Neil & Co. was told that for the entire field to receive points, they needed to have a field size of at least 75 pros.

That left quite a few of the LIV Golf pros disappointed. Bryson DeChambeau couldn’t believe the mistreatment they received from the OWGR.

“I haven’t been able to digest it fully,” he told the media. DeChambeau added, “I’m just digesting it currently. Literally, you saw me over there looking and going, ‘Okay, alright.’ So, trying to understand what it all means and how it all shakes out.”

A few others also had similar opinions. Overall, the situation in the Saudi-based promotion was quite grim. The poor TV ratings of Riyadh added insult to injury. And the results from Adelaide only made things worse.

Don’t get us wrong. On paper, LIV Golf Adelaide 2026 was a huge success. And only one man deserves all the credit for it. That man is Anthony Kim. His incredible comeback in the final round of the event has been the highlight of the season so far. He ended up beating DeChambeau and Jon Rahm to clinch his first win in LIV Golf. Kim certainly stole the show. But he couldn’t steal many fans.

Kim’s win was not enough to rescue LIV Golf from the grim TV ratings. They suffered where it mattered the most, as the numbers revealed the viewership barely grew a fraction from what it was in 2025.

As revealed by Josh Carpenter from Sports Business Journal, “Fox averaged 331,000 viewers (big data) for the 11pm-1am window on Saturday night for Anthony Kim’s win at LIV Golf Adelaide. Same window last year: 249,000 (panel only). Across four days on Fox/FS1/FS2, LIV Adelaide averaged 105,000 viewers.”

The viewership saw a 25% jump from a year ago. Statistically, that’s solid progress. If it were the PGA Tour that had achieved that, then they would have been golden. But LIV Golf isn’t getting a million viewers like their rivals in every event.

That said, it’s not only the TV ratings that reflect the fans’ distrust in Scott O’Neil’s product. LIV Golf is not able to win them over for their future plans as well.

Netizens don’t have faith in Scott O’Neil’s vision for LIV Golf

Our trusted sources of golf enthusiasts were asked, “Do You Think LIV Golf Will Exist 10-15 Years From Now?” And nearly all of them responded in unison.

A whopping 84.44% responded with a ‘No’, while Scott O’Neil’s vision only received support from 15.50% of them

Many of the supporters also left some interesting comments to share their thoughts on the entire situation. Considering the majority opinion, most of them dismissed the idea of LIV Golf lasting that long.

One of the fans said, “LIV is on borrowed time with two of their top players Koepka and Reed leaving with more to come and it’s tv ratings are low and their fan base is anemic.”

Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed‘s departure left a huge hole for them to fill. It would be challenging to find someone who can match Koepka’s popularity and impact. And Reed’s current form in Europe has left many wondering if Dustin Johnson made a huge mistake. Even if some believe Anthony Kim filled the void after his win in Adelaide.

Pushing the narrative of Koepka’s exit again, someone else wrote, “Their star players will be gone and their next tier players will not be able to gain the recognition they could get on the PGA Tour.”

The five-time major champion’s departure allowed the PGA Tour to open doors to other LIV Golf players as well. If Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau accept the fast-track ‘Returning Member Program’ to make a comeback, then it will be impossible for LIV Golf to sustain without their star power.

Even those supporting LIV Golf didn’t have that convincing an argument in their favor.

A fan wrote, “It will get a lot of euros and other parts of the world that the PGA tour doesn’t always reach plus some pga tour players.”

The way LIV Golf is structured, it will allow them to collaborate with the DP World Tour and reach more venues. However, that still doesn’t promise a sustainable business model that can last 10-15 years. Scott O’Neil will need to build a plan that can last longer.