Sawt Falasteen - New LIV CEO O'Neil predicts golf will 'open up again'

American sports executive Scott O'Neil, who has in the past run NBA and NHL teams, took the reins from Greg Norman in January.

The period since has seen a flurry of meetings between the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and their Saudi backers, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), but still no deal reached to reunite the sport.

"I think LIV has a place and an important place, and it's very different from anybody else in golf," O'Neil told AFP in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of this week's LIV Hong Kong tournament.

Only days ago leading PGA Tour player Rory McIlroy said that a deal to reunify golf did not feel any closer.

O'Neil would not comment on the stop-start talks with the PGA Tour but pointed out that the once icy reception from golf's majors to the breakaway series had thawed.

"I feel like the narrative just generally is shifting in and around LIV and golf," said O'Neil, who is the former CEO of the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers.

"That's probably most highlighted by each of the four majors in inviting LIV players and providing a pathway for LIV players to play in the majors, which I think is a great, positive step in the right direction."

But as it stands LIV's multiple major champions and greats of the game such as Jon Rahm, current US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson only go up against the cream of the PGA Tour four times a year.

- 'That day will come' -

There remains no free movement of players between the tours, and the only time LIV players can currently face the best of the PGA Tour is at those four majors.

O'Neil, however, is optimistic.

"Eventually, I believe that golf will open up again," he told AFP.

"We would like player movement. We'd like opportunities for our incredible stars to play around the world.

"And I think that day will come. But in the meantime, let's enjoy the majors."

Asked if there was a place for LIV in a future integrated golf calendar, along the lines of cricket's money-spinning IPL, O'Neil said he saw LIV as the pinnacle of the sport.

"We're very much the Formula One of golf," he said. "I don't think there's any other parallel that you can find."

LIV Golf, with its unique 54-hole, shotgun-start tournaments which have individual and team competitions with music blasting across the fairways, is in its fourth year and third full season.

And O'Neil predicted it had a bright future.

The league's slogan has evolved this year from "Golf But Louder" to "Long LIV Golf" and O'Neil said that "is the essence of who we will become".

"It's kind of our seal of approval, if you will, of our entry into the golf infrastructure around the world."

For now, the CEO is happy to wait for the day when golf's conflicts are resolved, and said he was focused on moving forward with LIV.

"I don't spend too much time looking in the rearview mirror. I spend much more time looking through the windshield," he said.

"We take great pleasure, and we feel it's a humbling honour, to be able to take these star players to the four corners of the earth.

"Whether it be Riyadh, Adelaide, Hong Kong -- we're now off to Singapore, and pit-stopping in Miami, before Mexico City, and then Seoul, Korea.

"Everywhere we go I kind of sit back and just smile. I think this is the way golf should be.

"I think golf is growing all over the world, and I think we'll play a role in that growth."

L.Hussein--SF-PST