GBR Pro | The Defining Moments of 2024 From the PGA Tour and LIV Golf
2024 has witnessed commanding performances on the golf course and stalemate in an attempt to unite professional golf. How will the events of this season shape how 2025 could look?
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Our content today looks at the following areas:
Recap of the 2024 season for the PGA Tour, LIV, and the majors.
Who won the most? We break down the on-course earnings between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
Who won the TV rankings battle? Did the PGA Tour and LIV grow their TV audiences in 2024?
Are we any closer to resolving the future of golf?
It’s really hard to believe that we are reaching the end of the 2024 golf season.
Writing this on September 27th as the President’s Cup is underway in Canada, it doesn’t seem that long ago that the golf world was waiting for the first major of the year, The Masters, in April with huge anticipation of the first reunion of PGA Tour and LIV players.
Who would triumph at Augusta was a hot topic of debate. Would it be the good and virtuous player from the PGA Tour or an upstart “only in it for the money” LIV golfer?
The added spice was Jon Rahm’s defection to LIV Golf in December 2023. Rahm had a stellar start to the 2023 PGA Tour, winning the season-opening Sentry, The American Express, and the Genisis Invitational. He was by far the form player going into Augusta.
Rahm played the sort of golf we had grown accustomed to and, by Sunday evening, was the proud owner of a green jacket to go alongside his 2021 U.S. Open trophy.
Rahm’s season post-Masters didn’t quite reach the same heights. However, he did play a vital role in the success of the European Ryder Cup team, contributing 3 points as Europe triumphed 16.5 to 11.5 at the Marco Simone Golf Club.
By the end of the season, Rahm finished 4th in the FedEx Cup and 3rd in the Race To Dubai standings.
2023 could be classed as a success for the Spaniard, but the bombshell didn’t land until December 7th, when Rahm switched allegiances and became a LIV Golf player. The signing fee was estimated to be between $300 million and $500 million, depending on which news source you chose to follow.
Would capturing the third-best player in the world at the time sink the PGA Tour and finish the DP World Tour?
The PGA Tour wasn’t taking things lying down. In January, the for-profit PGA Tour Enterprises was announced following a $1.5 billion cash injection from the Strategic Sports Group. The deal would see a total of $3 billion invested as the PGA Tour fought the riches on offer with the Saudi-PIF-backed LIV Golf.
On the course, Scottie Scheffler began a year of dominance, the likes of which hasn’t been seen since Tiger Woods was at the peak of his powers.
Scheffler claimed the Arnold Palmer Invitational in early March before becoming the first player in history to successfully defend the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass the following week. Within the next month, Scheffler claimed his second green jacket at the Masters and won the RBC Heritage the following week for good measure.
By mid-April, Scheffler was streets ahead of any other player on the PGA Tour. His earnings from winning those four tournaments had gone past $15.5 million. Remember, it’s still only April. How much could Scheffler win by the end of the season, and what records could he break along the way?
Attention quickly turned to Xander Schauffele. Schauffele was a member of the club no professional wants to be part of, the “Great Player But Not Won A Major Club.”
That all changed with a gutsy birdie putt on Valhalla’s 72nd hole of the PGA Championship in May to clinch his first major title. Schauffele enjoyed the experience of capturing his first major so much that he promptly followed up with his second by capturing the Open Championship less than two months later at Royal Troon.
A significant factor in the excitement created at the PGA Championship was Bryson DeChambeau’s emergence as a fan favorite. DeChambeau whipped up the crowds into a frenzy with his swashbuckling approach. His final round 64 meant he came up agonizingly one shot shy of Schauffele. DeChambeau certainly had mixed emotions as he left Valhalla Golf Club, but redemption came quickly. A scintillating performance capped by an incredible 50-yard up-and-down from a bunker short of the 18th green saw him earn his second U.S. Open.
The story could have been so much different if Rory McIlroy had been able to par his way in from 15 when he had a two-shot lead on the field. The hunt for that elusive 5th major goes into its 11th year in 2025.
After the Open Championship, normal service resumed as Scottie Scheffler polished off the FedEx Cup with his seventh victory of the season at the Tour Championship at East Lake in late August.
Scheffler and Schauffele were by far the biggest news on the PGA Tour in 2024, but what was happening in LIV Golf? How was Rahm settling in? Could he justify the huge amount of money paid to him?
Joaquin Niemann set the early pace, picking up a couple of wins early and stating his claim to be invited to the majors as one of the most in-form players in world gold. Niemann ultimately did get to play in all four majors without much success.
DeChambeau was LIV’s star performer. We also need to remember that he finished T-6 at the Masters before his 2nd at the PGA before he won the U.S. Open.
He was the only shining star throughout the majors. Rahm struggled for form and cuts before a solid performance at the Open Championship.
Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka had their moments but couldn’t make any serious assaults on the majors this year. DeChambeau aside, the naysayers of LIV Golf will see this year as further proof that the format and the caliber of courses played mean the LIV Golf contingent will be less of a threat as each year passes.
Ultimately, Rahm would go some way to justifying his signing-on fee with LIV by being the model of consistency throughout the season, never finishing outside the top 10 in any event, and claiming two wins late in the season to be crowned individual champion for LIV in 2024.
The Earnings Debate
Let’s take Jon Rahm’s signing-on fee with LIV Golf out of the equation for a second and analyze how the two tours stacked up on earnings on the course.
