LIV Golf & PGA Tour Trade Insults Publicly, Leaving Fans Fed Up: ‘A Big Joke’

Somewhere, everyone knew Brooks Koepka rejoining the Tour would come with some diss, but the timeline of it wasn’t sure. Well, it is now. On January 22, the PGA Tour dropped its “Where the Best Belong” campaign featuring Koepka, Tommy Fleetwood, and Rory McIlroy, practically baiting LIV Golf. Now LIV has fired back with a 2-minute satirical video. But instead of landing a knockout punch, fans say it crashed and burned spectacularly.

The orientation video, “An Exclusive Look,” was a bizarre mockumentary featuring “Guru Gary” leading fictional recruits through absurd team-building exercises and nonsensical corporate speak. The advertisement featured an eccentric spiritual guide character walking newcomers through LIV’s “core principles.”

“Team is everything here,” Guru Gary announced. The video showcases a detailed handshake forming L-I-V shapes that requires “a minute of uninterrupted eye contact,” suggests LIV stands for “Love Incredibly Vroom Vroom” rather than the Roman numeral 54, and includes a “circle of LIV contentment” described as similar to Duck, Duck, Goose. When golfers ask questions about the contradictions, Gary responds with abstract philosophical statements like “Questions are just answers we haven’t kissed yet.”

The video references actual players joining LIV Golf in 2026. Richard T. Lee from Canada, Björn Hellgren from Sweden, Yosuke Asaji from Japan, Anthony Kim from the USA, and Scott Vincent from Zimbabwe. These five Wild Card entrants earned their spots through two qualifying pathways for the expanded 57-player field.

Lee, Hellgren, and Kim got their spots at the 2026 LIV Golf Promotions event at Black Diamond Ranch. Kim’s third-place finish is an emotional return after being sent down after the 2025 season. Asaji and Vincent made it through the 2025 International Series Order of Merit, where the top two finishers got Wild Card status.

Victor Perez joining Cleeks GC is one of the new players on LIV Golf’s 2026 roster. He will be joined by Thomas Detry, Laurie Canter, and Elvis Smylie. After Brooks Koepka’s return to the PGA Tour and the retirements of Henrik Stenson, Kevin Na, Matt Jones, and Mito Pereira, there was room on the roster.

Moreover, this season, LIV is making more changes, including changes to its format.

LIV Golf announced in November 2025 that all tournaments will shift from 54 holes to 72 holes for the 2026 season. The league ditched one of its defining characteristics, the 54-hole format represented in its very name (LIV is the Roman numeral for 54). This move aims to align with traditional golf tournaments and strengthen their bid for Official World Golf Ranking points.

Yet their own satirical video jokes about this exact change, with a character stating, “I thought it was called LIV because it’s the Roman numeral for 54.” And that used to be the number of holes we played.”

But fans weren’t having any of it.

Social media weighs in on LIV Golf’s video

The harshest assessment came blunt and unfiltered: “This is LIV. A big joke.” This reaction suggested the self-deprecating approach backfired entirely, landing as cringeworthy rather than clever.

One viewer pointed to LIV’s recognition problem. “Couldn’t name anyone in that video.”

The comment reflects a measurable reality. Across seven head-to-head Sundays in 2025 when both tours held events, PGA Tour broadcasts averaged 3.1 million viewers on CBS/NBC, while LIV averaged just 175,000 on FOX/FS1/FS2. When your audience is 18 times smaller, name recognition suffers.

Another fan expressed frustration with the video’s length and content: “I would like to request my 2 minutes and 30 seconds back.” The funny part is nowhere to be found. And viewers were expecting a sharper, more concise response to the PGA Tour.

Not everyone was in the mood for criticizing. “I have to say this did make me laugh,” one commenter admitted, showing some viewers appreciated the absurdist humor.

And then came the most cutting response, dismissing both the content and its supporters. “The smoothest of brains think this is funny.” This suggested that even finding humor in the video became part of the mockery itself.

When your response to a competitor’s jab becomes the punchline, maybe silence would’ve been the better strategy.