As we hit the midpoint of the 2025 golf season and, with LIV Golf Dallas yet to kick off at Maridoe Golf Club, the chatter about momentum in pro golf is off the charts—and it’s not without reason. Both factions in this epic Tour War know that riding a wave of success is key. But here’s the thing: it is not easy to pin down what “momentum” actually means. Is it about snagging sponsors? Packing the stands? Or maybe it’s all about that social media buzz? And although it is not easy to define the right “momentum,” one golf insider tried anyway.

Ahead of the $25M worth LIV Golf Dallas, Gary Williams, the host of 5 Clubs, discussed the glaring disparities between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour on a recent episode. Especially when it comes to numbers. Williams mentioned the stalled merger talks between PIF and the Tour, and said, “Here we sit at the end of June of 2025. You look at where LIV currently is, and I’m not here, uh, to t-bone LIV. I’m not here to sideswipe them, but the truth is that it hasn’t gained traction.”

And here’s the thing, despite golfers like Bryson DeChambeau claiming that “we [LIV] aren’t going anywhere,” the truth is that the Saudi-backed league is struggling to find a footing in the golf world. Take the TV ratings, for instance. On Sunday, only 97,000 viewers watched the 2025 LIV Golf Virginia, held earlier this month. In contrast, the PGA Tour’s RBC Canadian Open, held on the same weekend, drew 2.376 million viewers on Sunday.

And that comes despite LIV Golf’s multi-year deal with FOX, as Gary Williams points out: “Now they have a Fox deal, and they were on Big Fox, and they were on FS1.” Earlier this year, LIV Golf secured a multi-year broadcast deal with Fox Sports, allowing live coverage of all three rounds of its events in the U.S. starting this season. It hasn’t helped the breakaway league, however.

Williams continues, “The truth is that the audience hasn’t been there, and the PGA Tour simultaneously is seeing an uptick in their ratings. Whether it was by design, and I don’t think it was entirely by design, the PGA Tour is winning when it comes to where people’s interest is.” To make a point, also consider the PGA Tour’s “Fan Forward” initiative. A significant change stemming from this initiative is the decision to eliminate “starting strokes” in the 2025 FedExCup Playoffs, a confusing aspect that favored players based on their standings.

However, when it comes to LIV Golf problems, Gary Williams pins the blame on LIV Golf’s format. He admits that “there has not been a growing level of interest in the product.” And that’s a point that Webb Simpson can back Williams on. A member of the PGA Tour Policy Board, Simpson stated in March about LIV’s team format: “To me, it’s hard to get your mind around the team concept.” In fact, when it comes to the LIV Golf’s team format, a LIV player himself stated his struggles with it earlier this month.

Graeme McDowell is still trying to “get my head around” LIV Golf

Graeme McDowell has been with LIV Golf ever since the breakaway league’s inception. And it’s not been a very successful run, if you look at his stats. In the last three years, McDowell achieved his best result in LIV Golf with a tie for second at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club earlier this month. And even this run hasn’t been easy for McDowell, specifically for one reason.

At the 2025 LIV Golf Virginia, Graeme McDowell pointed at the LIV Golf team format and said, “I have to say my first couple seasons on LIV, I struggled with it honestly. I struggled with having as much time off as we do have.” The problem for McDowell comes with one glaring fact: when he played at the PGA Tour or the DP World Tour, he competed in nearly 25 to 20 times in a year, and now he is playing less than 20 times in a year. It’s ought to affect his game, and that is pretty much obvious, given his stats.

And a lack of a tighter schedule, Graeme McDowell believes, has affected him, and something he is still trying to come around to. Three years into his career at LIV Golf! “It’s something I struggled with early on in my LIV career, and I feel like I’m starting to get my head around it a little bit. I’m doing a better job of showing up after two, three weeks off ready to go,” he said at the 2025 LIV Golf Virginia. So, maybe, Gary Williams isn’t entirely wrong?