“Golf giveth and golf taketh away,” said the late Simon Hobday, “but it taketh away a hell of a lot more than it giveth.” We will extend the interpretation: profitability is a mirage, even in sports as lucrative as golf. And LIV is learning that the hard way.

CEO Scott O’Neil said the league’s timeframe for profitability is “less than ten and greater than five” years. To deliver ROI, O’Neil plans to sell stakes in two teams by the end of this year and eventually in all 13 teams. Citi’s on the hunt for buyers, targeting $300M valuations for each team, which O’Neil hoped would rise to $1B.

But that’s hardly the only uncertainty LIV golfers will face in the years ahead. Two days ago, LIV Golf received a nod from the World Ranking body. It came with a caveat. We asked you whether it was fair, and your verdict was NOT in LIV’s favor—find out more about it here.

Right now, only the top 10 (and ties) at LIV events get points. Players 11th-57th are bumped to the sidelines. They will have to play in different tours to improve their rankings. Unfair to some, sure, but OWGR flagged LIV's limited promotion and virtually non-existent relegation system as unavoidable snags.

Bigger Picture: The real victims are LIV's young pros, stuck with the rebel league without any major exemption. They also risk missing the Ryder Cup. On the other hand, some big names have departed LIV, posing a threat to its existence. The remaining few, though, have to live under stress until LIV sorts out these matters, both internally (financial loss) and externally (OWGR points and lack of viewership).

It's WM Phoenix Open week—the official bacchanal for golf’s new normal. But before the madness kicks off, here's a throwback to the wildest memories from this rowdy romp.

Pandemonium: In the third round at the 2022 Phoenix Open, Sam Ryder’s tee shot on the 16th flew 124 yards, spun hard left, and vanished into the cup. Water, beer, beer cans, and everything that can fly flew from the stands as fans lost their minds. And it reached the broadcast booth where Amanda Balionis was seated with her colleague. Watch below what happened afterward.

Hero: Rickie Fowler is the Phoenix Open darling. In the final round of 2023, Fowler aced the 216-yard par-3 7th using just a 6-iron. Yes, it wasn’t on the 16th, but an ace is an ace, and the deafening roar of the crowd will tell you how much they enjoyed it.

Cheeky: Joel Dahmen was pumped to be paired with his friend Harry Higgs in the final round of the 2022 Phoenix Open. Dahmen tweeted that Higgs would take off his shirt on the 16th hole if it got enough retweets. It did, and Higgs obliged by pulling up his T-shirt. Beer showers ensued. But little did anyone know the stunt Joel Dahmen was going to pull off. We present to you the most audacious celebration in golf.

Unity: Tiger Woods and Phoenix Open have always been a lethal combo. Who can forget the hole-in-one Tiger made in 1997? Two years later, he got the whole gallery behind him again. His tee shot on the 13th smacked a one-ton boulder, and the ball caromed back a few feet. The rules official was summoned, and the boulder was deemed a loose impediment. What followed was probably the greatest fan involvement in a golf tournament—a large group of fans moved the giant rock. Watch the most incomparable scene in the history of pro golf.

Curb: The Phoenix Open is intentionally messy. But the 2024 iteration was when it went out of control—shirtless fans running amok, drunk fans sliding down the mud, making snow-angels on bunkers, and whatnot. The tournament organizers had to enforce new rules to avoid it, but that did little to avoid pros clashing with fans, as you will see here.

Everyone's been all rosy since Brooks Koepka’s PGA Tour comeback, but the man himself has struggled. At Torrey Pines, Koepka crawled to a T56. The glaring fault? Dead last in Strokes Gained: Putting, marked by a series of baffling misses like these.

Of course, he can't magically fix it, but he has ditched his decade-long partner, the Scotty Cameron Teryllium Newport 2, and switched to the TaylorMade Spider. It’s significant because Scotty Cameron was a blade putter, and the new one is a mallet.

Yeah, you are right. Scottie Scheffler did the same thing in March 2024. Result was evident: 162nd in SG: Putting in 2023 vs 22nd in 2025. At this year’s American Express, Scheffler drained a bunch of monster putts like these for his 20th title. Koepka should be content if he can replicate the success. Even partially.