Brandel Chamblee has another pop at LIV Golf, explains reason for poor TV ratings

Brandel Chamblee hardly keeps his disdain for LIV Golf a secret. In his latest rant, he goes in on the league’s struggling viewership…

Brandel Chamblee has fired another shot at LIV Golf, describing the breakaway tour as less popular than pickleball.

The former PGA Tour player turned analyst has never shied away from criticism of the Saudi-backed circuit, and as recently as last week described it as “dying a slow costly death”.

Billions of dollars have been poured out of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund into LIV to sign some of the game’s biggest stars, but it has struggled to resonate with TV audiences since its inception back in the summer of 2022. 

Even the $600 million capture of two-time major champion Jon Rahm ahead of LIV’s 2024 season failed to provide a significant boost, despite the Spaniard’s victory in the season-ending individual championship in Chicago last September.

“I got the numbers wrong in one of my tweets last week,” Chamblee said on the Dan on Golf Show. “I said their year-end event that concluded on the east coast in prime-time last year with Rahm winning got 55,000 [viewers]. It actually got 89,000. 

“But whether it’s 55 or 89 the point is still the same. Relatively speaking, nobody’s watching. More people will watch a pickleball event than that.

“And you’re talking about Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Bubba Watson, Phil Mickelson. You’re talking about, ostensibly, a star-chalked field, and nobody watched.”

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In contrast, viewing figures on the PGA Tour are generally on the up.

The two sides of the divide remain in talks to unify the men’s game once again, but as it stands, the likes of Rahm, Koepka, Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau are unable to feature in the PGA Tour’s most iconic events outside of the majors. 

While Rory McIlroy was claiming his second Players Championship crown at TPC Sawgrass, for example, LIV stars were competing on the other side of the world in Singapore.

Joaquin Niemann took the individual title and Fireballs GC sealed top spot in the team event, but Chamblee insists it’s all irrelevant when it comes to the mark these players are making on the game.

“People only really watch sports that matter, you’ve only got so many hours in a day to invest in the entertainment aspect of watching a sport,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s any sense that there’s anything they’re doing on LIV matters historically or will matter from a legacy standpoint.”