Golf fans stunned by new LIV CEO's outrageous 'best players' comment: 'Do you hear yourself?!'

Newly-appointed LIV Golf CEO Scott O'Neil has claimed "outside of the majors if you want to see the best players in the world then there's only one place to see it and that's at LIV" - and not the PGA Tour. 

O'Neil, 54, replaced two-time Open champion Greg Norman as LIV Golf CEO in January 2025. 

Norman, 70, had been at the helm of LIV Golf since its inception in the summer of 2022. 

Under Norman's leadership, the Saudi-bankrolled league has acquired a number of top PGA Tour talent such as Jon Rahm, Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Tyrrell Hatton, Joaquin Niemann and Sergio Garcia. 

But the Australian has now been replaced by an American as LIV Golf enters its fourth season intent on expanding its global reach, strengthening media partnerships and attracting corporate sponsors. 

LIV Golf made its first big media move in the United States earlier this season when partnering with Fox Sports, and it then announced UK golf fans would be able to tune into the action on ITV. 

Pathways have also been opened up with which LIV Golf players can compete in the majors, including the U.S. Open and The Open. 

But LIV Golf League events still remain shut out of receiving valuable Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points - and as a result, only one LIV player in Tyrrell Hatton remains inside the world's top 10 as it stands. 

That has largely been down to Hatton's desire to return to compete in DP World Tour events and play his way automatically into Luke Donald's 2025 European Ryder Cup team. 

But LIV Golf's star boy Rahm has sunk to a remarkable career low. 

O'Neil brings with him a wealth of experience from the sports and entertainment sector and he previously served as CEO of Merlin Entertainments where he overaw more than 140 attractions globally. 

His career also includes leadership roles as President of Madison Square Garden Sports and CEO of the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils where he gained recognition for his ability to drive growth and manage high-profile sports organizations.

O'Neil’s extensive background in sports business management is seen as a catalyst for further growth and potential investments, positioning LIV Golf as a formidable player in the world of professional golf.

But while few can pick holes in O'Neil's pedigree and background, plenty of golf fans have slammed his latest comments during the final round of LIV Golf Adelaide where the individual contest was won by Joaquin Niemann and the team event went to Sergio Garcia's Fireballs GC. 

O'Neil rather audaciously claimed "you don't have to look too far past our leaderboard to know that outside of the majors, if you want to see the best players in the world then there's only one place to see it and that's at LIV Golf." 

That is despite runaway World No.1 Scottie Scheffler, World No.2 Xander Schauffele and World No.3 Rory McIlroy all remaining on the PGA Tour. 

If you stay until the end of the video below, you will notice O'Neil's comment even surprised LIV Golf analyst David Feherty, who formerly worked as a PGA Tour analyst and on-course commentator at Golf Channel. 

Feherty appears to nod along before raising his eyebrow when O'Neil delivers his final verdict. 

Watch what O'Neil said here: 

Golf Channel analyst and one-time PGA Tour winner Brandel Chamblee was quick to respond to O'Neil's comment, and he understandably took aim against it. 

"And yet their top 10 players average finish was outside the top 40 in the 34 majors they played last year… meanwhile Xander Schauffele and Scottie Scheffler won 3 of the 4 majors in 2024 so maybe you only have to look far enough past their leaderboard to see a PGA Tour leaderboard."

Here's how a number of golf fans reacted to O'Neil's "best players" comment: 

I’m all for LIV but when they say things like this I’m kinda like, “do you hear yourself?”

Is he having a laugh?! LOL

That is factually wrong!

Not a chance pal 

I mean he has to say this. It’s his job. Even he can’t believe what he’s saying though. After about 5 on Liv you start getting to has been’s.

As much as I thoroughly enjoy the team aspect to the game and think it should somehow be incorporated into their eventual merger, no one turns on LIV expecting to see the best players in the world. Some of them, sure, but that’s either product…

LIV arguably has two of the top five players in the world. But out of the top 10 the number might still remain two. The best players are divided, and neither tour’s product is benefiting. Unite the guys.

As much as I hate to admit it, he's right. They took 75% of the players that I looked forward to seeing.

It's probably 50/50 now to be fair.

He uses the phrase best leaderboards outside of majors are on LIV. Let’s look at the top 5 finishers. (Bland, Puig, Ancer, Niemann, and Ortiz.) Their combined career majors record. 63 starts, 0 wins and 2 top-10’s (both by Ancer) Good god his comments are awful.

There is not one ranking system out their that would agree with that statement

Leaderboard is more than the top 5-6 ‘names’ on top… gotta take a deeper look at the next 15-25 to see who they are actually leading. Thats the difference in tours. These are NOT the best players in the world.

Just absolutely the wrong take. I get hyping your product but don’t say things that aren’t true and it’s so easy to see it’s incorrect.

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