LIV GOLF MEXICO CITY

April 16, 2026

Scott O'Neil

Club de Golf Chapultepec

TV Interview

Q. There's always noise around the LIV Golf league. We're kind of used to it. Over the last two or three days it seemed particularly amplified. What happened?

SCOTT O'NEIL: Having been in private equity now for over a dozen years, which is the process you go through, and sometimes it's not smooth and sometimes it's not easy, but I can tell you, given the momentum of this business, we're really excited about where we are and the position where we are. This notion of secret meetings and getting summoned to New York -- I live in New York so it was easy to summon myself there, but it was a lot of reaching and grabbing for headlines and clickbait and stories.

For us, we're business as usual. If you want to ask me if this business is tough, I would say absolutely. If you asked me if we're managed very tightly, I would say absolutely. Can this be challenging? Absolutely, and that's what we signed up for, not just me, you, everyone here that's with us down in Mexico City. We signed up for this adventure, and it is the ride of a lifetime, or should I say, round of a lifetime.

Q. What is the future of the league as you see it?

SCOTT O'NEIL: How we go forward is what I'm really excited about. I talked about some structural changes. They're coming. You can ask just about the 50 people I met in Augusta. I rolled out the plan. We have one, and it is going to -- it might surprise some people. But I will tell you, this notion of bringing teams to market, I had two calls this morning. This notion of do you have to raise money? Probably. This is business.

But if we keep the trajectory going the way we are and the revenue growth going, this is going to be a really good business for a really long time.

I have to ask you one thing: I'm American. I love the U.S. market. It's the No. 1 TV market in the world, period, end of sentence, the No. 1 sponsorship market in the world, period, end of sentence. In golf, in sport.

But long-term, do you want to bet on 340 million people or 7.5 billion people? That's all I'm saying. That's the only difference is I'm taking a 7.5 billion-person bet. That's something we should be excited about because golf should be seen around the world with some of the biggest stars in the game, and that's what we're doing.

Q. Going forward, if you were to sit in a room with one of the world's great players and talk to that player about coming to LIV Golf, how would you sell it right now?

SCOTT O'NEIL: Well, most of them call us, quite frankly. The first thing I say when I'm talking to any player is, LIV Golf is not for everybody. If you want to spend your time in the U.S., this is the wrong league for you. If you want your home time and you don't like leaving and you like practicing at the same course and you like to manage your own schedule, this is not for you.

But what I'll tell you, if you want to grow the game of golf around the world, this is for you. If you love to explore new cultures and new courses and have new experiences, this is for you. If you feel like golf could be lonely sometimes -- this is the toughest, most lonely sport in the world. Boy, there's nothing like a team after a bad round to pick you up.

We're now in over a billion homes around the world you can watch this. We had 5½ million people tune in to our event in Australia with the great Anthony Kim win, the Rocky Balboa story of today. It was the largest golf event in the history of the country. We go to South Africa, the largest golf event in the history of the country; we had 100,000 people with fans singing the National Anthem on 18.

We started the season with a 23-year-old Elvis Smylie coming out out of the gates with Jon Rahm breathing down his neck and winning. Then, of course, we finish off, of course, with Jon Rahm and Bryson winning the last two, and you think, I think we have something special here.

From a business standpoint, we did almost a half a billion dollars in sponsorship last year with big brands like Rolex and HSBC, Aramco; these are global brands. I'm thinking we're in a wonderful position.

From a structural standpoint, this business will continue to evolve as it has over the last 12 months. The good news for us is we know how to put on a show. We know how to grow the game. I've seen the kids on the first tee. I've seen the amount of women we have and families. Over 20 percent of our audience are families, some of them pushing strollers, growing that next generation.

We have the hard stuff good. But will there be a change in how we operate? Of course. I would have told you that last year and six months ago. We are looking to blend a version of LIV and the national opens, the great national opens around the world. We think they're the most underappreciated, undermarketed, underdeveloped assets in golf, and the reason is it gets us on the ground to grow the game of golf.

Q. You've been in the role now for 16 months; it's been a busy time for you. You're very present as the face of the LIV Golf league. How have you seen it evolve in your time at the helm?

SCOTT O'NEIL: Well, we've seen this LIV Golf -- this is a five-year-old league. So having worked at the NBA and the NHL and the NFL, at teams and leagues and different experiences, Major League Baseball is a 100-year old league. NFL, 85 years old. NBA, 80 years old. Hockey, over 100 years old. This is a five-year-old league.

So what fun to come in here and be able to reinvent and reimagine what we're doing, and as long as we stay pure to the mission, to grow the game of golf around the world, the path becomes really clear.

Here's what's really interesting. I would love for you to think about. I know there's some people rooting against LIV Golf. I understand that, okay. But is golf better without LIV Golf? Should all the best events in the world be in the Continental U.S.? Is that right? Should we be targeting 60-year-old men, or should we put some focus on the global game? Should we put some focus on this next generation of fans? Should we engage social media? Jon Rahm and Bryson out for 60 minutes after their press event in South Africa, signing autographs for 60 minutes every day.

We don't weave our path of players away from fans, we actually weave it through the fans. Our players are our partners. Like how special is that?

Q. I've been here a while, Scott, and I'm used to the attacks. I'm used to the noise, which doesn't seem to be abating. I almost characterize it as certain members of golf media or the golf fans out there want to almost will the LIV Golf league out of existence. Why do you feel the attacks continue?

SCOTT O'NEIL: You know, I'm not sure. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it. I'm disappointed with some of the coverage. I've never read -- been in an industry that has more unnamed sources than this one. In fact, I was reading through some coverage this morning, and I couldn't find one source on the record in all the articles that were written.

I would just say let's be responsible. If I am a PGA TOUR player, I want LIV to survive. These prize purses are pretty good. Competition is good for business. If I'm a television network, I'd love LIV Golf to survive. It's good television. If I'm a reporter, it certainly makes the news a little more spicy, or has occasionally.

If you're a fan, you want more golf around the world. If you're outside the U.S., we are outside the saturated market and we're in markets that are dying for this kind of action.

So I think there's a lot more to gain with LIV Golf here than LIV Golf gone.