Sport with John Duggan: LIV Golf goes bankrupt

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

This podcast is supported by GoFundMe.

SPEAKER_2 (0:02)

My name is Veronica. We started our fundraiser for Mariah. She was a close friend in my heart, but she was also family. She was my sister-in-law. She unfortunately passed from a car accident, so it wasn't something that we were prepared for. Shortly after we got the news, I was put in charge of helping with the funeral arrangements and everything, and just looking at the overall cost, it didn't feel right for me to ask the family that's grieving for money. That's what made me go to GoFundMe, and it just became a network of people that were willing to come together to help.

SPEAKER_1 (0:36)

GoFundMe is the world's number one fundraising platform trusted by over 200 million people.

SPEAKER_2 (0:41)

You really do miss out on the opportunity to help people if you don't ask. When you actually put your heart, your soul into it and you're like, this is the reason I'm doing it, it helps a lot.

SPEAKER_1 (0:53)

Start your GoFundMe today at gofundme.com. That's gofundme.com, gofundme.com.

SPEAKER_3 (1:00)

The Hard Shoulder with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman. On Newstalk with Ciara.

Shane Colman (1:08)

John Duggan, it's a case of live and let die.

John Duggan (1:11)

Yeah, breaking news. The New York Times are portioning, Shane, right now that LIV Golf is going to fold. After five years, there's been a New Jersey bankruptcy court hearing today. It lasted 13 minutes. The LIV Golf lawyers announced formal plans to pivot from restructuring to full liquidation. The game was up when the Saudi Public Investment Fund pulled out.

Saudi Arabia had this big idea that it was going to be this hub for world sports as opposed with the economic model is moving off oil.

It's been this massive disruptor when it comes to golf. I set up this tour, gave players hundreds of millions of contracts. The top players were prized away from the PGA Tour and DP World Tours, like John Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Kapka, Cameron Smith and Phil Mickelson. As Roy McElroy described it, it was a economy. It was a bubble that burst. It never got off the ground. It never had popular appeal. It never really had a raise on DETRA. And it was harmful to golf because it's, first of all, sport at its purest form. And I think we see this in gated games at its purest form. An amateur sport is all about competition. It's about the best against the best and striving to be the best you can be. You're just taking money to go off and play in a tour that has no meaning. And you're a hostile force against the tour that has meaning with competition. Might not be perfect, the PGA Tour.

You're really disrupting the sport. You're also then creating an image to the wider world that this is just a sport which is now consumed by greed.

And it's been very damaging. The players that stayed in the PGA Tour, including Rory McIlroy, deserve a huge amount of credit for seeing this off. Greg Norman, of course, is the face of LIV for quite a long time. But I would call it the most disgraceful waste of money in the history of professional sport. Five billion dollars down the drain. Yeah, absolute waste. And you think the world we're living in, I know money is wasted and you look at footballers and the amount of money that's in football and the amount of money in corporate sport around the world. But this is the most disgraceful waste of money that I've, you might as well set fire to the money because it had no meaning. Like football, okay, we talk about Premier League clubs and like even look at the football model in the UK is not that stable, right, if the owners pull the plug. But at least, I know Manchester City probably not a great example, but at least most sport around the world is based on the ethos of competition.

Shane Colman (3:44)

Yeah.

John Duggan (3:44)

Do you disagree?

Shane Colman (3:46)

No, I couldn't disagree with the word. Well said, JD.

John Duggan (3:49)

By the way, Rory McIlroy, speaking of Rory, the Masters Champion, he was given a two shot penalty today at the Abu Dhabi Championship, the Aldar Championship in the UAE. Now why is that? Because on the 12th hole, his chip shot rolled down a hill and it settled in a divot. He briefly placed his lob wedge behind the ball, causing the grass to move. And once on the video by officials, he took his penalty. He said the following afterwards, I quote, obviously there's no intent. I play by the rules. I try to do everything that I can to never end up in these positions. But just looking at the video doesn't look very good. Obviously it wasn't my intent. I was just trying to get a feel for the lie. I don't feel like I pressed down, but at the same time, I don't want the perception of people thinking like I got away with something either. I'm happy to take the two shot penalty and move on and move into tomorrow. So I think that's fair enough.