For a guy who comes from outside the world of golf, LIV Golf’s new CEO, Scott O’Neil, now occupies a hot seat among the game’s most powerful decision makers. After the New York native walked into the media centre at LIV Adelaide on Wednesday, alongside five-time major champion and LIV star Brooks Koepka, for his first press conference at the helm, O’Neil canvassed several hot topics that have remained a huge curiosity among golf fans.

Namely, how does O’Neil see LIV fitting into the framework agreement between the league’s financiers, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), and PGA Tour Enterprises? That deal, according to reports, has been ramping up. There’s also an interest in learning how O’Neil sees former LIV CEO, Greg Norman remaining with the league and, lastly, O’Neil’s vision for LIV as a tour.

As the former CEO of companies and organizations such as Merlin Entertainment and the Philadelphia 76ers, O’Neil has been getting the lay of the land in his first 40 days in golf. He’s overseen the announcement of a TV deal for LIV with FOX and a U.K. broadcast agreement with ITV. He was even spotted at last month’s TGL debut in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Now, with LIV’s third campaign kicking off last week under lights in Saudi Arabia, he’s into season mode.

“It’s been a short 40 days here,” O’Neil said in Adelaide. “I grew up in New York, if you haven’t been able to tell so far by my funny accent, and the state motto is ‘Excelsior,’ which means kind of onwards and upwards.”

It will certainly speed up this week at the league’s flagship event, LIV Adelaide. Tournament organizers are expecting more than 100,000 fans through the gates over three days at The Grange Golf Club. That would be a record for the 3-year-old league, known for its 14 tournaments having a non-traditional format: no cut, 54 holes and a team element.

“[Adelaide] is the pinnacle of our events, and hopefully in the future this is the bar that we set,” Koepka said, sitting beside O’Neil.

Ultimately, raising that bar will start with O’Neil and end with Koepka and his fellow LIV stars, such as U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith and Jon Rahm creating a compelling product. While LIV has struggled to gain traction in the U.S., apart from healthy crowds at its Doral tournament in Miami, some of its overseas events have performed well.

LIV Adelaide remains the league’s showpiece, but it has also found a reliable home in Spain at Valderrama (prior to the Open Championship) and in the Midlands of England with LIV Golf U.K., where an announced 45,000 fans watched last year as Jon Rahm grabbed his first LIV individual victory. Then there’s LIV Golf Hong Kong, where a reported 25,000 fans showed up last year. This year, LIV will head to Club Golf de Chapultepec in Mexico City, the former host of the PGA Tour’s WGC-Mexico Championship from 2017-2020, as well as Korea in May.

O’Neil wants LIV to retain its global emphasis going forward.

“The Australian Open here is a good example with tennis; it’s a world-class event, and for a moment, the tennis world starts and stops here, and golf seems to be very centred on the United States,” O’Neil said. “Yet when you look at the golf world and you look at Australia and the U.K. and Hong Kong and Singapore and all the incredible cities where we’re blessed to go play … we’re taking the game to where golf fans around the world want to see the greatest players on the biggest stages. We feel like that is an opportunity.”

LIV’s desire to serve underutilized markets around the world, such as Australia, has long been the ambition of Norman, a two-time Open champion. He attempted to create a world tour in the 1990s and finally got his wish as the CEO of LIV from its inception in 2022. While O’Neil took the reins last month, Norman remains in the LIV ecosystem. O’Neil hopes he stays with the league.

“I spent quite a bit of time with him in my 30-day lead up to this role and every day since engaging, asking questions and learning, and I hope that he is part of LIV forever,” O’Neil said. “If you’re smart and humble and earnest enough, you spend quite a bit of time with your predecessor. Mine just happens to be one of the greatest golfers of all time, of which I am not, sadly. Nonetheless, Greg is an icon. He is a friend. He is the reason I’m here today.”

Norman also remains on the board of LIV.

“We just had a board meeting last week,” O’Neil added. “We can tap into his experience, his leadership, his friendship, and any challenges, too, at the board meeting. I was hoping for a friendly face on the other side of the table, but he mixes it up pretty good.”

In the bigger picture, O’Neil will also need to navigate whatever LIV’s role may be in negotiations between the PIF and PGA Tour Enterprises. The PGA Tour announced that it has asked President Donald Trump to help with the talks and that commissioner, Jay Monahan and player director Adam Scott met with Trump last week. Tiger Woods played golf with Trump last weekend.

Complementing those discussions was news that the USGA created one spot in the U.S. Open field for the top LIV points earner. This week, the R&A followed by making one spot at the Open Championship via the LIV standings.

While the golf world waits to see if the two tours will come together, O’Neil said he was enthusiastic about the potential for a deal.

“For us at LIV, we are hoping that [a deal] unlocks opportunity,” he said. “That may unlock opportunity with markets, with courses, with marketing partners, with television networks, with growing the game, with competition opportunities, with new formats … effectively, we’re very excited about the potential investment with PIF and PGA Tour Enterprises.”

Main Image: Sarah Reed