OPINION: Round 2 of LIV Golf South Africa - A Pivotal Moment for The League

The second round is set to tee off shortly at The Club at Steyn City just outside of Johannesburg, South Africa. The first round highlighted so much of what’s great about what LIV Golf is doing. Despite the start time being moved up by a couple of hours due to some afternoon weather systems the league was looking to avoid, thousands of fans lined the first fairway to watch their countrymen, Charl Schwartzel, Louis Oosthuizen, and Dean Burmester tee off on the first hole.

Oftentimes when a tour changes venues or adds an event to their calendar it will take some time for it to feel like it matters. It will take some time before that week on the calendar feels important, or some time before the region embraces the event and fills up the course. That’s not the case with South Africa. They’ve sold over 100,000 tickets in the lead up to this week and there’s a real chance that by the end, this will be remembered as the biggest golf event in South African history. I can’t begin to imagine what next year’s event is going to be like.

It’s starting to feel like LIV Golf has landed their next Adelaide. An international event that’s been wholly embraced by the locals and will be a staple on the calendar for years to come.

Add to this that one of the all-time greats and captain of HyFlyers GC, Phil Mickelson, is back this week and things seem to really be firing on all cylinders. It’s LIV Golf’s chance to further strengthen their base with one of the most important pillars of their vision, successful international events in regions that have fully accepted them.

A successful event this week’s helps set the standard and lets other regions around the world that might be interested in hosting an event know something every important: what’s happening in Adelaide isn’t a fluke, it’s repeatable.

The long term benefit and momentum gained from that being the primary message this week could change the trajectory of LIV Golf, it could expedite things they currently see as long term goals and make things they couldn’t have previously imagined a reality.

Through 18 holes, though, it hasn’t been perfect…

There were some things that didn’t exactly go off without a hitch in regards to the logistics, which honestly is all to be expected. The start time had to be moved up by two hours and there were some struggles getting to the course with limited on-site parking. Nothing worth stressing over and if we’re being honest, it’s probably the exact kind of struggles you want to have. It’s a sign of growth.

The kinds of problems that concern me a little are in relation to the broadcast and the product being put out online.

The broadcast of the first round is cool to see. The course has very unique views that create some incredible drone shots and camera angles. It’s awesome to see the fan turnout because it’s a direct indication that what I’ve been saying is possible with LIV, really is possible. But there’s one thing missing, one thing that up until now I hadn’t really ever thought would be a complete make-or-break for golf broadcasts, because I’ve never had to think about it.

It’s easy to write this off as a technical issue, which it almost assuredly is, but I have some nagging thoughts in my head that make me believe things run a bit deeper.

LIV Golf has struggled with technology issues since their first ever event, but none of it mattered to me. None of it mattered to me because all of these issues came about because they were pushing the envelope, they were releasing new features and trying new things. Functionality issues that come alongside pushing the envelope are, to me, are completely acceptable.

That’s not what’s been happening this season, and that’s not what was happening in the first round of South Africa.

The Any Shot Any Time features have been working sporadically throughout the season, which I personally find concerning. It worked pretty flawlessly in 2024, and had some issues in early 2025 that were eventually ironed out. For it to be not fully functional in 2026 is problematic, it’s the third year with this feature and simply, it should be functioning at this point.

The individual leaderboard not being on the screen for the entirety of the first round broadcast is baffling. It’s a new and creative way to make a broadcast nearly unwatchable. It results in the product going from a high energy broadcast of a professional golf tournament, to a series of non-contextualized golf shots of varying quality, like a highlight reel but they aren’t all highlights.

Without a clue where anybody stands on the leaderboard, or what the leaders are at, it all feels a bit meaningless. It’s just golfers hitting golf shots and doesn’t truly feel like golfers competing in a tournament. The interesting part of early tournament golf is players jockeying for position, taking advantage of opportunities to make sure they stay in the mix come the weekend. Without knowing how any of these shots are affecting their chances, I struggled to remain at all interested in the round.

It affected the commentary, it affected the group streams, it affects everything. All of this during what is very likely the biggest and most important event of the 2026 season, from a business standpoint.

And while I fully understand that it’s a little bit harsh to take this one issue and act like it’s representative of the league as whole and how they handle it could dictate the trajectory of the league going forward. But even when zooming out and trying not to put too much focus on one round, I can’t help but think there’s deeper issues at play here.

I find myself wondering if while growing over the past few years if LIV has developed culture issues within the organization that cause issues like this to come about more frequently. I find myself wondering if those in charge of the product have the same energy they had in prior seasons, an energy built on pride in the product and willingness to do anything necessary to make sure things are running smoothly. I find myself wondering if they are too caught up in big picture and acceptance into the mainstream golf world that they sometimes forget to focus on the details.

Throughout the offseason and the first few events of the season, I continually find myself thinking these things. I hope I’m wrong on this and I think the second round will serve as an indication of what the future may look like. Did they stay up all night to get these issues ironed out? Is everybody doing everything in their power to make sure the broadcast is firing on all cylinders? It can’t simply be people doing their jobs, it needs to be people that take pride in their product, people that are trying to build something great, something innovative.

It’s worth noting here that in the second half of the broadcast, they had the team leaderboard on the screen the entire time, indicating that there’s definitely an issue with the individual leaderboard, and they realize there needs to be something. This gives me some amount of optimism.

What the second, third, and fourth round of South Africa represent for LIV Golf as an organization is an opportunity. An opportunity to show their product at it’s peak, to show new markets what is really possible if they embrace LIV Golf, and to show fans what they have been working on building for years now.

At the ground level LIV Golf South Africa will represent exactly what they want to become.

There will be tens of thousands of fans in attendance that will thoroughly enjoy the event.

The economic impact driven to the region will be in the millions.

The fans will rally behind Southern Guards GC in an effort to spur them to their first win of the season.

Plans will be made for future sponsorships, partnerships, and more.

But will the broadcast—the product that’s put out to the world— work in service of this all? Will it serve as not only proof of concept, but proof of progress?

I hope that it will. I hope I’m wrong in my concerns that the lack of a leaderboard in the first round may be a symptom of a greater issue within the organization. All of the stars have aligned for this to be a tremendous weekend for LIV Golf. The locals have done their part, they’ve fully embraced the event and have showed up en masse. Now it’s just up to the broadcast to show it off to the world.

Go out there and solve the problems, LIV. The most loyal fans, the ones most frustrated by the issues this season, they’ll instantly become the biggest and most vocal supporters imaginable.