LIV Golf coming to Las Vegas on Super Bowl weekend
Super Bowl week in Las Vegas just got a little more crowded.
LIV Golf, the breakaway Saudi-backed tour, has confirmed it will stage its first U.S. event of the 2024 season at Las Vegas Country Club on Feb. 8-10.
The tournament is scheduled for a Saturday finish, the day before Super Bowl 58 at Allegiant Stadium. That is also the weekend of the PGA Tour’s Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale, the spectacle that draws in excess of 600,000 fans annually.
The event will bring LVCC, located just off of the Strip, back into the national spotlight. LVCC had hosted PGA Tour events for eight years in the 1980s and LPGA events from 2003 to 2006.
Bringing LIV Golf to Las Vegas is a departure for the circuit, which has previously avoided locations that already host PGA Tour events. The Shriners Children’s Open, played annually in October, has been a part of the Las Vegas sports scene for 40 years.
“We’re thrilled to announce an exciting slate of events that reflects our commitment to bringing world-class players and premier competition to new and repeat markets every year,” CEO Greg Norman said in a release announcing the 2024 schedule. “Launching a new league is a massive undertaking, and we’re full steam ahead.”
Since its arrival in 2022, LIV Golf has fractured the professional golf world. Players including Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Sergio Garcia and Phil Mickelson left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf with nine-figure signing bonuses. Players that joined the new circuit were subsequently banned from playing PGA Tour events.
The two tours are in negotiations for a potential merger, with sides given until the end of the year to hammer out an agreement. Little has been made public about any progress in that effort.
LIV Golf has not made any announcements about tickets for the Las Vegas event or any of the 14 tournaments on the 2024 schedule. The season begins Feb. 2-4 outside Cancun, Mexico, at El Camaleon Mayakoba Golf Course, which had hosted a PGA Tour event for more than a dozen years until jumping in 2023 to LIV.
Other U.S. stops on the 2024 LIV calendar include Houston and Nashville, Tennessee, in June and a yet-to-be-named location in April. Events held in 2023 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Tucson, Arizona, have been dropped from the schedule.
The remainder of the 2024 schedule features international venues, including Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Singapore, Spain and England.