# LIV Golf launch

> LIV Golf launched with a $25m tournament and PGA Tour defections.

- Owner: LIV Golf Investments, majority-owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund
- Kind: Moment
- Sector: Sports
- Seed date: 2022-06-09
- Observed peak date: Week of Jun 15, 2022
- Date basis: Observed peak within the documented measurement window; not an all-time maximum. Some dates are known only to the week, month or year.
- Spread Score: 29 (Niche), v1.3
- Mechanics: Controversy, Transgression, Platform jump, Press loop, Pairing

## Summary

LIV signed PGA Tour stars and opened at Centurion Club. Suspensions and sportswashing criticism spread through Twitter and podcasts. Schwartzel won $4.75m. Wikipedia attention peaked in the week ending June 15.

## Timeline

- 2022-03-16 — LIV Golf Investments (Open web) — LIV announced an eight-event series with $255m in prize money and more than $400m in seed funding.
- 2022-06-01 — BBC Sport (Press) — The BBC named Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia among 42 confirmed players for the opening event.
- 2022-06-09 — LIV Golf (YouTube) — LIV opened its first tournament at Centurion Club and streamed play on YouTube, Facebook and its website.

The full timeline, metrics and sources are on the case page, or via the Pro API (https://howitspread.com/mcp#api).

Canonical URL: https://howitspread.com/cases/liv-golf-launch

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “LIV Golf launch.” Case HIS-01756. Spread Score v1.3: 29/100. Updated 2026-10-26. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-01756