“Stop the cap” – LIV Golf’s championship ring designer says the ‘narrative’ of low audience at the circuit’s events is ‘laughable’

LIV Golf's championship ring designer Ben Baller recently attended the season-ending individual championship in Chicago and commented on the "narrative" that LIV golf events have low audiences. He shared a video from the entrance of the Chicago event on his X (formerly Twitter) account, highlighting the audience "all over."

Baller tweeted:

"The narrative about nobody is going to LIV golf events is laughable. This was 3 hours in and not even the busiest part of the event. It was packed all over the course today. Stop the cap."

Baller has designed the championship ring for the individual champion. The Saudi circuit will crown the winner at the end of the Chicago event on Sunday.

The golfer who tops the season-ending standings will be the individual champion of the season and will receive the championship ring. The ring features a hidden ball marker and a QR scanner for the winning moment. Additionally, it has an "L" engraved on top and "LIV Golf 2024" on its side.

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Highlights from LIV Golf Chicago 2024

The first round of the 2024 LIV Golf Chicago event kicked off on Friday, September 13. Day 1 saw an impressive performance from Brooks Koepka, who started his outing at the event with a bogey-free round.

The American golfer shot eight birdies for a round of 8-under par, comfortably taking an impressive four-stroke lead over Paul Casey. Anirban Lahiri settled in third place, followed by Bryson DeChambeau, who is tied with Lucas Herbert, Henrik Stenson, Dustin Johnson, Joaquin Niemann, Patrick Reed, and Ian Poulter for fourth place.

Here is the leaderboard of the 2024 LIV Golf Chicago event after Round 1:

• 1 Brooks Koepka -8
• 2 Paul Casey -4
• 3 Anirban Lahiri -3
• T4 Henrik Stenson -2
• T4 Ian Poulter -2
• T4 Dustin Johnson -2
• T4 Patrick Reed -2
• T4 Bryson DeChambeau -2
• T4 Lucas Herbert -2
• T4 Joaquín Niemann -2
• T11 Sergio Garcia -1
• T11 Louis Oosthuizen -1
• T11 Peter Uihlein -1
• T11 Martin Kaymer -1
• T11 Harold Varner III -1
• T11 Thomas Pieters -1
• T11 Abraham Ancer -1
• T11 Jon Rahm -1
• T19 Dean Burmester E
• T19 Eugenio Chacarra E
• T21 Lee Westwood +1
• T21 Matt Jones +1
• T21 Richard Bland +1
• T21 Anthony Kim +1
• T21 Branden Grace +1
• T21 Carlos Ortiz +1
• T21 Kalle Samooja +1
• T21 Talor Gooch +1
• T21 Scott Vincent +1
• T21 Adrian Meronk +1
• T21 Jinichiro Kozuma +1
• T21 David Puig +1
• T33 Graeme McDowell +2
• T33 Kevin Na +2
• T33 Charl Schwartzel +2
• T33 Sebastián Muñoz +2
• T33 Andy Ogletree +2
• T38 Bubba Watson +3
• T38 Jason Kokrak +3
• T38 Brendan Steele +3
• T38 Danny Lee +3
• T38 Tyrrell Hatton +3
• T38 Cameron Smith +3
• T38 Mito Pereira +3
• T38 Sam Horsfield +3
• T46 Charles Howell III +4
• T46 Pat Perez +4
• T46 Marc Leishman +4
• T49 Phil Mickelson +5
• T49 Cameron Tringale +5
• T49 Kieran Vincent +5
• 52 Matthew Wolff +6
• 53 Hudson Swafford +8
• 54 Caleb Surratt +10

Jon Rahm leads the Individual standings with 195.17 points, followed by Joaquin Niemann. These two are the most favored to win the individual championship if they perform well at the Chicago event.

In the first round on Friday at the LIV Golf Chicago, Niemann shot 2-under to secure fourth place, while Rahm settled in a tie for 11th place at 1-under. The final of the Chicago event will take place on Sunday, September 15.