Success of LIV Golf reportedly hinges on 1 thing

June 10, 2022; St. Albans, UK; LIV golf chief executive Greg Norman looks on during the second round of the inaugural LIV golf invitational golf tournament at the Centurion Club. Mandatory Credit: Paul Childs-Action Images/Reuters via USA TODAY Sports

LIV Golf is throwing around big money and attracting many big-name players. So far, they seem to be off to a good start. But the future of the upstart league apparently hinges on whether the team aspect takes off.

Golf Digest’s Dan Rapaport is at the LIV Invitational Series event at Bedminster this week. He said based on his discussions with LIV Golf executives that the success of the league depends on the team aspect catching on.

The teams having value and being able to sell them to ownership groups, corporate sponsors, etc. They’ll need a TV deal of course, but I keep coming back to the team aspect. Those need to be billion dollar entities for this thing to sniff profitability.

— Dan Rapaport (@Daniel_Rapaport) July 28, 2022

LIV Golf needs a TV deal of course, as Rapaport mentioned. But the team aspect is what would likely make the league profitable.

Unlike other golf tours that are centered around individual play, LIV Golf has 48-player events featuring 12 teams of four. They aspire to have ownership groups buying in to the teams and selling corporate sponsorships.

With the exception of the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, golf fans are used to seeing the professional sport take shape as an individual thing. Selling it as a team sport will involve reshaping the way many golf fans think. That won’t be easy, but for LIV, it will be necessary.

Between what we’ve learned about the team aspect and what we know about the future relegation model, we’re understanding much more about LIV’s plans.