DALLAS — Before the celebration champagne even dried on the massive awards stage behind the 1st hole at Maridoe Golf Club at the LIV Golf Team Championship, commissioner Greg Norman was already declaring victory in Year 3 of the upstart golf league.
“To be honest, I wish we were still going (this year). It’s been a good and successful year in all ways,” said the smiling Norman, wearing a black LIV Golf shirt and hat while his chairman Yasir-Al-Rumayyan lingered nearby in a cowboy hat.
“I believe in our content and our platform and we have been consistent around the world. We have a part in the ecostream of golf and that is something we’ve said since Day 1.”
While the all-Australian Ripper GC won the title by three shots and the $14 million which came with after a tight and dramatic Sunday duel (full results here), Norman’s view was backed by the thousands of North Texas golf fans who showed up on an NFL Sunday afternoon to watch the action.
While America's team had a late-afternoon kickoff in Arlington, there appeared to be more LIV team gear in the crowd than for the Cowboys or any other NFL franchise. In fact, in the sold-out sponsor boxes, there was nary a TV turned to the NFL at least until the golf was over and the Cowboys were already behind by double figures.
“When you had the greatest players in the world, the greatest golf fans in North Texas and what I feel is one of the greatest courses, it’s the most potent golf cocktail you can have,” said Maridoe owner Albert Huddleston. “You give them a compelling golf product and they are going to show up every time.”
His dream was to bring LIV Golf to Dallas for the circuit's first visit in Texas, in the football fall where few local events have dared to tread, and he was pleased enough with the outcome to sign up for another event at Maridoe in 2025.
“They will be back next year, I can promise you that,” Huddleston said. “It’s been (contractually) locked in.”
But when in 2025 is still in question. Huddleston said he thought a similar time frame as this year was still in play, specifically next August or September, but LIV golf officials said discussions were already underway to end the ’25 season by Labor Day to avoid the NFL monolith.
While four LIV golf events were already announced for 2025, the rest of the schedule is still fluid except for a return to Maridoe according to its owner.
“They (LIV) have to be happy and I have to be happy and we both are now. They didn’t give me an attendance figure, but I think they like to underplay everything.”
But that mattered little to the throngs of fans on a 92-degree Sunday afternoon—technically the first day of fall—who came for the event.
Couples and plenty of families packed a souvenir shop, playground and putting course, and spectators on the course were seven-deep in spots while following the lead groups.
Of the top 12 in Sunday’s leaderboard there were six major champions: Masters winners Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed and Charl Schwartzel, along with British Open winner Louis Oosthuizen and Cameron Smith.
The final-day format where all four players’ scores counted for their teams meant a steady flow of exchanges on the leaderboard among Ripper GC, the runner-up 4Aces, the Iron Heads (who pulled off a stunner Saturday in eliminating Bryson DeChambeau’s defending-champion Crushers in a match) and Legion XIII, playing without ill captain Jon Rahm yet still making it to the group of four title-eligible team Sunday.
The difference turned out to be a Smith birdie on the 17th hole, giving Ripper GC a two-shot cushion with one to play.
“It played on my nerves a lot with the changing of the leaderboard, but it will be a great party,” Smith said.
North Texas golf fans at Maridoe appeared to agree.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as LIV Golf Threw a Texas-Sized Party for Its Team Championship, and Fans Turned Out.