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The PGA Tour vs LIV Golf battle is still ongoing despite plenty of efforts to bridge the gap and merge the golfing world. However, the attempted merger hasn't gone through yet, and pro golf remains polarized between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
Golf insider Rex Hoggard shared his views on this battle and said LIV Golf needs prominent names like Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, and Brooks Koepka to win the "right events" if it wants to remain competitive.
"I'm sure they're thinking to themselves, not only do we need the Brysons or the John Rahms or the Brooks to win, they need to probably win at the right places," Hoggard said on the Golf Channel podcast. (from 24:41)
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"And by that, I mean I had an agent text me this afternoon. And can you imagine if the Nelson was going head to head with the LIV event, which it was not because the time zone difference being in South Korea," Hoggard revealed.
He believes if CJ Byron Nelson 2025 and LIV Golf Korea 2025 were up against each other at the same time, it would have been an interesting comparison.
"But no disrespect to Scotty [Scheffler], but when you have a player who's running away from the field like that on what is a pretty mundane golf course, that that's not why you're going to tune in either. It would have been an interesting comparison to put those two up against each other had they been in the same time zones," Scheffler revealed.
The PGA Tour held the 2025 CJ Cup Byron Nelson in Dallas, Texas, while LIV Golf had an event in Korea. Even though the schedule of both events was similar, the timings of both events were different due to the two countries being in very different time zones.
He continued further and said LIV Golf now has an official broadcaster in the USA, with FOX acquiring the broadcast rights for the Saudi-backed league, making it easier to compare the two leagues.
"Now that they have a platform that you can compare to CBS or NBC or whatever the case may be, we haven't really gotten one of those, to be fair, to your point. When Bryson had a chance to win in Miami, that was probably going to be one of the best, I believe that was San Antonio. It was up against on the PGA Tour. That was going to be one of the best comparisons," Hoggard said.
On the PGA Tour, Scottie Scheffler managed to win the CJ Cup Byron Nelson 2025, while on LIV Golf, Bryson DeChambeau won the Korean event.
LIV Golf vs PGA Tour viewership ratings
LIV Golf Mexico was in a direct clash against the PGA Tour's Zurich Classic from April 25-27. Fox Sports 1 broadcasted the final round of LIV Mexico live while the Zurich Classic faced troubles due to technical glitches, giving LIV Mexico a bit of push and viewership.
Per Golf.com, the numbers suggest LIV clocked in at 110,000 average viewers on Fox Sports 1 as Joaquin Niemann won the event in Mexico. The PGA Tour, on the other hand, battled with technical glitches for over two hours and had 1.63 million average viewers on CBS in the same time slot.
However, it is imperative to note that LIV has various other ways of streaming and is aired on cable, while the PGA Tour is aired on a national over-the-air network. Additionally, LIV Golf CEO Scott O'Neil perceives the league as an international league and believes it receives a good amount of viewership internationally.
