PJ Clark and Joseph LaMagna, the Fried Egg Golf duo known as “The Boys,” arrived in Indianapolis this week for what their own show’s episode notes flagged as possibly LIV Golf’s “final event.” They didn’t make it far before getting a taste of the mood themselves. Hours after Clark posted a joking X update from the driving range, the pair were denied access to it. By the end of it all, they had their verdict.
“It’s dystopian for sure, is like a word that I would use it. It’s really I feel like it’s going to be hard to do justice in the newsletter and this podcast to really give you an accurate feeling of how the ground is because it’s just so weird. Yeah. I don’t, players seem just kind of like they’re scratching their heads and like they have no idea what’s going on and like they can’t get any information. I think that’s more the mood than maybe there’s some frustration. Like some guys are grinding. It’s a mix,” The Boys said on Fried Egg Golf and The Shotgun Start.
LIV canceled its actual season finale, a $40 million team championship in Michigan, the Monday before Indianapolis even began, making this makeshift event the last of the year almost by accident. Combined prize money for the two events dropped from a planned $70 million to $40.1 million, with Indianapolis’ individual purse alone cut nearly in half, from $20 million to $10 million.
But that’s before accounting for who hasn’t been paid at all. A production company, Fresh Tape Media, sued LIV in New York state court for more than $1.2 million in missed invoices. A second vendor, Mobii Systems Group, filed a separate $1.1 million suit in July. Multiple players, meanwhile, told The Telegraph they still hadn’t received their winnings from LIV New York.
So, there’s complete uncertainty, and even the golfers have no clue what will happen to the league next season. And the uncertainty was again on full display Tuesday, when LIV players filed into the Chatham Hills clubhouse to meet the league’s proposed investor (reported to be BC Partners’ Ted Goldthorpe, though LIV has not confirmed his identity), alongside O’Neil for roughly 50 minutes.
Reactions afterward split along familiar lines. “It was productive. It was a very good meeting, very positive,” said Martin Kaymer, who still wouldn’t commit to playing LIV in 2027 when asked directly: “I can’t say that.” Charles Howell III was blunter: “We just don’t know anything.”
As Laurie Canter recently told NUCLR GOLF, everyone’s still in fact-finding mode, which puts the future of all the professionals at risk. So, a little frustration at this point doesn’t come as much of a shocker.
Then Brendan Porath asked them whether they felt it was the end of the league. In response, The Boys referred to a recent interview of Bryson DeChambeau with Jerry Foltz, where DeChambeau had said that even if LIV Golf’s end comes around, they had a great run and the league has changed the game a lot.
“Look, it’s tough. It’s not easy. We definitely have a lot against us. But I think this behind the scenes, we’ve got a lot of people that are working hard to make this possible for not only all the players that are out here, but all the fans that have come out to these events and the economic impact that we’ve made in all these places, whether it’s South Africa, here in Indie or Australia, numerous places across the world, the UK, all the different places we’ve just listing places in the U.S., even Nashville, where we played a few years ago was unbelievable,” Bryson DeChambeau said.
There’s no denying that LIV Golf Adelaide and LIV Golf South Africa attracted a much bigger crowd. However, the same can’t be said for every LIV Golf event.
Speaking about the economic impact at Indianapolis, The Boys said they didn’t see many crowds at the event. The marquee group featured Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, and Lucas Herbert. However, there were roughly 300 fans watching them play, which is not a large enough number to make a big impact on Indianapolis’ economy. They did acknowledge, though, that the number of fans could increase over the weekend.