Before he was LIV Golf’s CEO, Scott O’Neil ran Merlin Entertainments, operator of the Legoland resorts and Peppa Pig theme parks. He had a background that had nothing to do with tour golf and everything to do with keeping a fragile business alive on entertainment value. That skill is being tested now more than ever. And strangely enough, former PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has already provided him with a precedent, ripe with things he must avoid.

Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard traced LIV Golf’s existence back to a single miscalculation by former PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan. He believes LIV CEO Scott O’Neil is now walking down the same path with the rebrand. The discussion surfaced on the Golf Channel podcast with Rex and Lav, hours after O’Neil confirmed a new investor package to keep the league running past 2026.

“The biggest mistake that maybe Jay Monahan, the commissioner at the time, made was having a lot of faith in his players and believing that his players would be loyal to the PGA Tour. ”

“That was proven quickly over time, at least, that that wasn’t the case, that they were going to chase the dollars.”

In June 2022, with Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia already gone and Brooks Koepka about to follow, Jay Monahan told reporters at the Travelers Championship that he wasn’t naive.

“I am not naive. If this is an arms race and if the only weapons here are dollar bills, the PGA Tour can’t compete,” Monahan said. “The PGA Tour, an American institution, can’t compete with a foreign monarchy that is spending billions of dollars in attempt to buy the game of golf.”

“We welcome good, healthy competition. The LIV Saudi golf league is not that. It’s an irrational threat; one not concerned with the return on investment or true growth of the game.”

He added that no one organisation owns or dominates the game of golf, with various entities working together for their own priorities. The one common thing in all that is that the best interests of the sport are at the heart of their actions. Monahan went on to share his perspective of what happens when someone tries to buy the sport. 

“…that partnership evaporates, and instead we end up with one person, one entity, using endless amounts of money to direct employees, not members or partners, toward their personal goal, which may or may not change tomorrow or the next day. I doubt that’s the vision any of us have for the game.”

But Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka signed with LIV within days. Jon Rahm held out the longest, telling reporters in mid-2023 he didn’t even want a loyalty bonus, before joining LIV himself that December.

Now, Hoggard sees the same bet being played in reverse.

“I think if Scott O’Neil makes a similar mistake, he’s going to get a similar answer that these players are only going to be as committed and as loyal as the price tag and the purses will allow them to be.”

That test is already underway. What LIV’s players are being asked to accept now looks far less generous than what first lured them away from the PGA Tour.

Earlier this week, O’Neil revealed LIV has secured a lead investor worth a reported $250 to $300 million to fund the league past 2026, with players set to become majority equity holders. But the tradeoff is steep: 2027 purses are expected to fall from this year’s $30 million to as low as $15 million, and the schedule will shrink from 14 events to roughly 10.

Asked directly whether stars would stay for less money, O’Neil pointed to Rahm and DeChambeau, whose contracts expire in 2029 and this year, respectively.

“They’re some of the biggest stars in sports, let alone golf. Would certainly love them to come along for the ride and journey because they carry maybe more weight than anybody in the game and I have a lot of time for that,” said O’Neil.

DeChambeau has expressed strong support for staying. He led the players’ meeting on August 4, and his words from May indicate that speculation about him leaving LIV Golf is “completely untrue.” However, Rahm has remained on the fence with his response to the media.

“I’m not going to share anything that I can’t share with you guys right now,” said the Spaniard.

Rahm’s silence may say more than a quote ever could. Whether O’Neil avoids Monahan’s mistake now depends on an answer LIV won’t have until the money actually runs out.