Opinion: An observation during LIV Golf Jeddah Invitational... #livbroadcast
A number of tweets were posted during the first round of the LIV Golf Jeddah Invitational by accounts which had opened just this month.
As we are told and as we are all aware, the LIV Golf Invitational Series is here to stay. They have recruited well and the expansion of its schedule is far from done.
The new tour has heavily invested in recruiting the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed and Cameron Smith as well as a large group of European stalwarts.
The Jeddah Invitational is the seventh and final event in the individual series before the season-ending Team Championship in Miami at the end of the month.
Apart from securing status from the Official World Golf Ranking board, which refused to grant this week's and last week's events points, LIV Golf needs a mainstream broadcaster to stretch its coverage around the globe.
You can watch the live broadcast on YouTube and the official website and during the stream earlier today at the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club, golf fans were encouraged to post tweets using '#livbroadcast' so they can be used on screen.
While I was watching the coverage, part of a 17,000-strong group, I thought I'd look up a tweet that was featured on-screen from an account named 'CamSmithBurner'. They tweeted: "Woke up early to cheer on the 4Aces from South Dakota, USA #livbroadcast #LIVGolf."
This account was formed in August 2022. It had 0 followers and it was following just one account. This was the only tweet this account ever did before it was deleted later this afternoon. The account no longer exists.
I spotted similar activity on Twitter in relation to the #livbroadcast tag and various other tags. Accounts named 'NaamonS, M_Weiss_china, Jimjim21091798 and nndlovu693 were all formed in October 2022. So essentially, within the last two weeks.
Each account has only posted a handful of tweets, with one of them only posting one. Every tweet was based around LIV Golf while the majority of them used some type of hashtag from the series.
I appreciate that this isn't exactly a forensic examination of social media activity and I also don't want to be one to continually criticise the LIV Golf Tour, as some find so easy to do.
But this small pattern of activity on Twitter could strongly suggest that these accounts were made for the purpose of building engagement on social media for LIV Golf.
#LIVGolf #livbroadcast is enjoyed here in Yantai, China! The shorts the players wear are not mentioned all enough! Another great upgrade to make golf louder!!
— m w (@M_Weiss_china) October 14, 2022
If this is the case, the obvious issue is that Greg Norman's league are concerned about the growth of its fanbase, so much so that Twitter accounts with no prior evidence of golf interest, or interest in anything, have been fabricated to generate engagement.
The rebel series denied that a broadcast deal was close with Fox Sports or any station at the moment, which could mean they are using alternative ways to build interaction with fans, if you can call them that.
Also, at each of the seven events of the league which kicked off in England in June, free tickets and discounts have been made available en masse to draw crowds and create an atmosphere, an atmosphere Talor Gooch once compared to scenes at the Ryder Cup.
We are only in the first season of the LIV Golf Tour and as I've stated, it is here to stay. The free tickets and the peculiar Twitter accounts will likely be afterthoughts in five years' time when more players have hopped over and OWGR points are in the bag.
Nonetheless, this small sample of tweets and social media activity is an alarming aspect of LIV Golf's early rise which portrays a hint of desperation.
