Golf's Big Reset: What if the Future Looks Nothing Like the Past?
First off - I’m talking about the sport we watch type golf - not the one we play - though there could be some crossover. Stay with me - this will be fun.
The PGA Tour is not as fun as it used to be, not as many personalities you want to watch.
But bigger news - LIV Golf is on life support.
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund — the Brinks truck that built the whole thing — just announced it's pulling its money at the end of the 2026 season. After more than $5 billion in funding since 2022, the PIF says LIV is "no longer consistent with the current phase of PIF's investment strategy." Translation: the checks are about to stop.
So what now?
Phil Mickelson. Brooks Koepka. Bryson DeChambeau. Dustin Johnson. The bad boys tour — led by the OG bad boy himself, Greg Norman — got the bag and got the haterade that came with it. They made guaranteed-salary, generational money. And the golf world sneered.
But here's the thing nobody wants to say out loud: LIV failed because it was boring. It didn’t reinvent the model - it iterated when the sport needs innovation.
Not because it was Saudi-funded. Not because the players “sold out”. It failed because its TV numbers were tiny and nobody outside the players' families could name a single team. You can't build a sports league on guaranteed paychecks and shotgun starts. You build it on stories, stakes, personalities and a reason to tune in.
Which brings me to the question I can't stop chewing on:
What if golf got reinvented from scratch?
TGL is the wrong answer
Tiger and Rory's TGL indoor simulator league tried something. Big screens. Indoor stadium. Mic'd up players. Cool tech. But it feels like a glorified video game with less user engagement.
It's like watching a body double of the real thing. After Tiger's debut pulled a million viewers, ratings dropped 32% the next week. The format is a synthetic version of golf. The players hit a ball into a screen. The stakes are made up. And the magic of golf — wind, weather, the smell of pine, the cathedral hush before a putt — is gone.
You can't fake the real thing.
The Savannah Bananas may have found the secret sauce
If you want to see how to remix a sport, look at minor league baseball.
The Savannah Bananas play "Banana Ball" — a remixed version of baseball with dance routines, trick plays, and a two-hour time limit. Sounds silly? The cheddar ain’t silly…
They're projected to do more than $100 million in revenue this year — turning a profit while 11 MLB teams (including the Yankees and Mets) lost money. They sold out 18 MLB stadiums in 2025, drew 102,000 fans to a single game at Kyle Field, and have more TikTok followers than MLB itself.
A novelty exhibition team is now valued near a half-billion dollars. Forbes estimates it could go to a billion if they sold.
How? They made it fun. They put fans first. They blew up tradition.
Now picture that energy on a golf course.
Here's what the future could look like
What if golf became an event — not a four-day, watch-it-on-your-phone slog, but one electric night you'd block off your calendar for?
Set the stage. Take the golf course behind the Wynn in Vegas. Add bleachers on every side, like the 16th hole at the Waste Management Phoenix Open — the loudest hole in golf, where fans throw beer when guys make a hole-in-one. Cameras everywhere, like Augusta National. Players mic'd up. Under the lights at night.
Mix the format. One night, three events:
The long drive. Who can hit it the farthest? Bryson vs. the field. Bring the World Long Drive energy.
Closest to the pin. Pure skill. Pure pressure. Ten yards or you're out.
The Happy Gilmore round. Trick shots. Play a hole with 75 year old golf clubs like Bobby Jones did. Goofy holes. Hit it through a slot canyon. Bank it off a billboard like Larry and MJ. The kind of stuff TGL should've leaned into.
Make it teams. Six teams. Twelve players each. Men and women playing with and against each other. Throw in celebrities (Bill Murray earned the right). Let the fans vote for MVPs and player of the night.
Take it global. Twelve venues around the world — Vegas, Dubai, Tokyo, Cape Town, Sydney, São Paulo, Miami, London, Mumbai, Mexico City, Riyadh, LA. One stop a month. Like F1, but you can golf.
The sports betting world would love it. Sports betting is the rocket fuel of modern viewership. Though I’m not a fan of sports betting because I think it’s just another numbing agent to escape reality. The truth is - with Kevin Hart hyping the next bet between holes - the DraftKings and FanDuel folks would back the dump truck up with all the cash anyone could imagine. I almost feel I should write a follow up article on the state of America and escapism - but not yet.
This isn't TGL. This isn't LIV. This is the NBA All-Star Weekend meets the Masters meets an F1 night race.
The money has always been in TV
Here's what the LIV bros got wrong: the money in modern sports isn't in the live gate. It isn't in YouTube clips you watch on your phone. It's in TV rights — feet-up, big-screen, Sunday-night appointment viewing.
You don't get there with 54-hole shotgun starts on courses no one's heard of. You get there by giving people a reason to gather, cheer, and pending your paradigm - bet.
You get there by making it an event.
The cons (because someone has to say them)
Will purists hate it? Yes. Augusta won't sell its soul, and that's fine (way to hold the line and remind us of the purity of the game Augusta National) — the Masters can stay the Masters. We're not replacing tradition. We're adding something new to the table.
Will it cheapen the sport? Maybe. Or maybe it grows the sport like the dunk contest grew basketball. Like the Bananas grew baseball. Like F1's Drive to Survive tripled US viewership.
Will the gambling element get ugly? I sure think it’s not healthy for the NBA (but that too is a different article. We are brainstorming here, trying to limit my filters 🙂
But pretending betting isn't already woven into modern sports is fantasy.
The real point
LIV proved you can pay anyone to play. It also proved that's not enough.
The next version of golf needs to be louder, weirder, faster, and more fun. It needs women and men on the same stage. It needs celebrities. It needs stakes you can feel in your gut. It needs trick shots and team rivalries and one wild night under the lights.
The Savannah Bananas turned the oldest game in America into a billion-dollar circus.
Golf is sitting on the same opportunity. Somebody just has to be brave enough to grab it.
Thanks for joining today’s episode of ‘Jared likes to ideate like its a sport’ 🙂
What do you think — pros and cons? I'd love to hear it 🙂
—Jared
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