Golf Analyst Pushes Bold Changes as Pressure Mounts on LIV Golf to Fix Team Format

LIV Golf’s team concept has been its biggest selling point and its greatest weakness, but a new proposal could finally add the ‘win-or-go-home’ drama it desperately needs. According to one prominent golf analyst, the solution is a radical change that the PGA Tour itself abandoned: Match Play.

Surprisingly, the momentum for change is being driven by PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp. During the “State of the Tour” presser on March 11, 2026, he made it clear that the circuit wants to capture fan interest. “We are exploring ways to add even more drama to the postseason, including the potential integration of match play, creating win‑or‑go‑home moments as the season reaches its conclusion,” he said.

Well, match play was an integral part of the PGA Tour for decades. However, it was surprisingly dropped in 2023. But if it returns to LIV Golf, would it still have the same support from the fans? 

During a recent episode of Golf Channel Podcast with Rex & Lav, Ryan Lavner declared the need for a one-off. It came up because WGC organized match play at the Austin Country Club around this time (end of March). And that’s how he stumbled upon a suggestion for LIV Golf. 

“The fact that LIV has at least not sprinkled a couple of these match play tournaments throughout the course of its schedule feels like a big miss to me,” Lavner opined on the Golf Channel Podcast. “I think that could be a really big win for LIV because I know it was somewhat exciting with Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau going head-to-head.”

Watching Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau go head-to-head at LIV Golf South Africa attracted significant attention. Even Gary Player, who was previously quiet about LIV Golf debuting in South Africa, was moved enough to congratulate DeChambeau upon his win. But could things have been better if they had battled it out in a one-on-one match play?

But at LIV Golf, it’s a match play between the two teams, where each hole is a simple win or loss. And it’ll continue till one team can’t be caught.

Lavner continued, “The whole team concept of him needing to make par in the last hole without the actual like mono-e-mono, head-to-head dynamic to me just still feels like a big miss.”

However, not everyone is of the same belief as Lavner on this.

Analyst points out the problems with match play format for LIV Golf

Lavner co-host, Rex Hoggard, voiced his opinion on the matter as well. He is not convinced that the change Lavner is pushing for will be a good bet, and according to him, it has never worked.

“My diatribe against the match play is, it’s never worked on the PGA Tour,” Hoggard claimed. “It hasn’t worked, it’s not going to work… We ended up with so many bad finals, and we ended up with so many bad semi-finals, and there was always more reporters than players on a Sunday afternoon. And it was quiet.”

While the early rounds of match play delivered excitement, the format lost its momentum as the events progressed. In a one-on-one, the players went a bit aggressive. After all, they’d get one point for winning a hole and lose one for a loss. By the end, the one leading by a significant gap would win. And since only two players occupied the field, things went quieter than the average Wednesday. 

But the worst thing is that we never got the matches we wanted the most. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson never battled it out in a head-to-head match play. But that would have been one of the most exciting plays. 

“We never ended up getting the good matches that we want,” Hoggard claimed. 

The reason? Multiple players decided to skip the match play, and it turned into a tragic mess. Even Sam Burns, who won the 2022 Valspar Championship, decided to withdraw from the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play to rest and prepare for the next tournaments. 

Valspar Championship winner Sam Burns has withdrawn from the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. Burns is replaced in the field by Maverick McNealy. Bernd Wiesberger is now the first alternate.

Statement from Burns: pic.twitter.com/YRra13E6tn

— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) March 21, 2022

As far as LIV Golf is concerned, the league seems to struggle to establish meaningful team identities. It has been trying to incorporate ideas from events like the Ryder Cup. LIV Golf has pushed for regional teams like the Korean GC to represent that particular region. But can a match play solve its issues? Well, not really!

“If you’re going to lean in to the team concept, you should lean into it. But match play is not the answer. Everyone seems to think it’s this match, and I have three decades of proof that it’s not,” Hoggard added. 

Yet, Lavner seemed adamant in his take that a match play could act as the perfect break from the monotonous run of 72 holes. But what do the top players think of match play?

What do Scottie Scheffler and others think of match play?

While the analysts have their opinions, some players have also chimed in on this topic. While the PGA Tour dropped the match play concept in 2023, the reaction from some players showed disappointment.

“I would love to have it back,” said Scottie Scheffler back in 2023. “I think match play is a good change of pace. Commercially, I don’t know how well it works when it comes to TV and only having so many guys on the golf course on the weekend.”

Billy Horschel also stood in support of the 1v1 format, saying, “We all enjoy it, some more than others. Some enjoy the old format better than this format. But if you look at the game of golf, we want things that are different. I’m sad to see it go.”

While it theoretically appears as a knight in shining armor for LIV Golf, match play failed to bring in exciting collisions in the past couple of decades. And it’s possible that it’d fail with the Saudi-backed league as well. 

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