Ever since the 2025 season of LIV Golf began, Scott O’Neil has implemented a lot of changes to improve the product. They signed a contract with Fox Sports to broadcast their events live. LIV Golf also partnered with ITV for free-to-air television very early in the season. The new CEO even tried to experiment with nighttime golf to appeal to the American audience. However, nothing could improve their ratings as they continued to deliver around 300,000 to 400,000 average viewership, just like they did in the last few years. And O’Neil finally admitted he made a crucial mistake.

He joined the Starbucks CEO, Brian Niccol, and Heather Ruden, on a special from Salesforce titled ‘Leading with Purpose: Starbucks & LIV Golf’. During the conversation, Ruden asked him what he got wrong during his first season. O’Neil told the host, “Everything’s been perfect, to be honest,” before they all laughed it off. On a serious note, he said, “I’ve made a career out of making mistakes. I think here, instead of 260,000 employees (in Starbucks), we have 260 employees.”

That should be easier, right? But Niccol thought otherwise as he mentioned, “that might be harder.” After a short laugh, O’Neil continued, “I vowed with this next opportunity to show up as a different type of leader. I vowed to show up much more patient, much more calm, and that didn’t last as long as I would have hoped.” It’s not like Scott has had any public outbursts of anger. But he has had to react more often than act, considering how fast things have moved since he joined. Despite all the plans to try and build bonds with Jay Monahan & the PGA Tour, he struck deals with new broadcast partners and sponsors that became a cause of concern for their rivals. This is exactly what Greg Norman also did to frustrate the PGA Tour officials. That’s not even the end.

O’Neil also said, “My style, that I’ve had throughout my career, has been much more of knights of the round table versus king and court. And when you come into a hardcore turnaround, hardcore change situation, that patient, humble style can’t always work and be most effective. I feel like I had a really good bead on what our priorities need to be, really quickly. I found really quickly that every email, every text, every meeting, every call, everything mattered, like every minute I was actually moving the ball forward or having it lean back.”

While he may have tried to remain calm when he first joined, O’Neil soon realized that LIV Golf was just too chaotic to manage with patience. With all the drama between them and their rivals, the constant efforts to increase the visibility of the product, and developing new strategies to improve the quality, he had a lot on his plate from his first day on the job. As he explained, he had his priorities set, but there were so many aspects about LIV Golf to prioritize that a calm approach would have never worked. In fact, Scott also revealed what he would do if he could start over.

“Had I to do it all over again, I would have been a bit more directive than is comfortable for me and started saying ‘Yes, do this’. I know that’s not sustainable, but I was hired 30 days before our first event. I literally walked into Riyadh, and it’s the first time any event has ever been under the lights in a major way. This isn’t something I was fully prepared for. It’s the event business. So I imagine Starbucks is like this: things are going to go wrong all the time. It’s just live engagement. It’s a matter of like, how are you prepared to handle them as they come up, and can as few people know, and can you react very quickly.”

Taking the hot seat just 30 days before the beginning of the season, it was like Scott O’Neil was placed on a ticking time bomb. Had he received a few more months to prepare for it, maybe things would have turned out differently. But because he was already starting off with planning for the season opener, and that too the first night golf event, it made the situation far more challenging. And it’s not like O’Neil didn’t do his best to promote it with a positive mindset. But despite being covered by Fox Sports during American prime time, LIV Golf Riyadh failed to gain high TV ratings. That was the first sign of failure for the man who replaced Greg Norman. Everything from then on was just him trying to cover up the message the former boss had created.

Despite all the issues, Scott O’Neil has still been able to achieve some things Greg Norman couldn’t during his regime. Let’s see how he won over the golf world with his leadership.

Is Scott O’Neil the leader LIV Golf needed instead of Greg Norman?

Greg Norman’s departure as LIV Golf’s CEO brought stability in the golf community. Many believed that he caused a lot of unrest between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, which delayed the merger conversation. Not that Scott O’Neil has been able to help it progress any further. But ever since the new CEO’s arrival, Jay Monahan had been a lot more open to the merger than he was during Norman’s regime. That showed when he approached President Donald Trump to curate the conversation between the PGA Tour and PIF as he looked to unite both the Tours.

Moreover, Scott O’Neil was also a largely accepted figure in the golf community. He received a special invitation from Tiger Woods to the first TGL game. The new LIV Golf CEO was also welcomed at Augusta National by the course officials and greeted warmly by everyone. This is vastly different from how Greg Norman was treated by everyone. It is evident that the world perceives Scott O’Neil far differently from LIV Golf’s former leader. He can try to use this to his advantage and help the league find more success than the Australian legend could ever have achieved.