What the Hatton Signing Means for LIV

LIV Golf has snagged another top PGA Tour player. 

A little over a month after poaching Masters champion Jon Rahm, LIV has signed Tyrrell Hatton to a deal reportedly worth up to $60 million. Hatton had earned just shy of $22 million in 128 PGA Tour starts. 

Word spread on Monday when The Telegraph reported that Hatton was set to join Rahm’s Legion XIII team. The official announcement arrived Tuesday, confirming the news.

The LIV season begins this weekend in Mexico, and Hatton will be there for the opener. He had been expected to play on the PGA Tour this week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. 

This is not particularly surprising—Hatton has been mentioned repeatedly in rumors over the past few months—but it is another significant blow for the PGA Tour. 

Hatton, 32, is in the prime of his career. The Englishman ranks No. 16 in the Official World Golf Ranking and No. 10 in the Data Golf Ranking. Although he only has one PGA Tour victory (2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational), Hatton has won six DP World Tour events and is a key fixture on the European Ryder Cup team. 

So what does his signing mean for the future of LIV and the PGA Tour?

The PGA Tour-PIF Partnership Grows More Likely

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which bankrolls LIV, has the PGA Tour in an increasingly vulnerable position. 

Hatton signing with LIV is perhaps the most blaring signal that the PGA Tour and the PIF will come together to form one global tour or allow players from both circuits to compete wherever they want. 

For one, Hatton is the best non-major champ LIV has signed. If the status quo carried forward, Hatton could easily go into 2025 with no opportunity to play in the four majors. His world ranking will likely drop rapidly because LIV does not receive OWGR points, pushing him outside of qualifying. 

Previous top players to sign with LIV had their major exemptions locked up for several years. Rahm, Cameron Smith, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and others knew they could take the LIV money while still getting their major starts. 

Hatton leaving suggests he has a high degree of confidence in pro golf uniting, allowing him to play a full calendar of the top events. 

It is abundantly clear that LIV will continue to sign top players. Rahm and Hatton are world-class golfers with a decade-plus of successful competitive golf ahead of them. On top of that, Rahm and Hatton are two characters that draw attention. Hatton’s tantrums on the course make him a fascinating and polarizing figure in pro golf.  

The PGA Tour is not in trouble when it comes to pure talent—it is still the better league by a wide margin—but the tour is quickly losing personality and entertainment value. We don’t watch golf exclusively to see incredible skill. We need storylines, villains and odd characters. 

LIV has taken those headline-makers. The PGA Tour can’t afford to lose more of them. 

The PIF could eschew a partnership with the PGA Tour while continuing to nab top players, but that would be counterintuitive to what Saudi leadership wants. It’s been made clear that their desire is a seat at the corporate America table, and getting into bed with the PGA Tour would accomplish that. 

Also, we have seen virtually nothing to suggest LIV would hold its own as a standalone product, even if more top players join. Ratings are abysmal and the organization is bleeding serious money—even for an entity with a bottomless wallet, that isn’t sustainable. The infrastructure and stability of the PGA Tour’s advertising partners could bring legitimacy to LIV. 

It’s nearly impossible to envision the two sides not coming together at this point. The golf world needs it.

Could LIV Capitalize on Hatton’s Outbursts?

While we’re skeptical about LIV as an entertainment product, Hatton could be a performer that brings eyeballs to the league. 

Hatton is known for sudden outbursts of rage. Some fans adore him for it, some fans are tired of it—but Hatton inspires emotion in golf watchers. 

He has been brazen enough to pretend to take a machine gun to a hole location he didn’t like at Augusta National. Then he skewered the course during his post-round interview. 

Golf needs more outlandish characters like him. 

The PGA Tour leaned into the Hatton experience on occasion but it had to be filtered. Hatton earned more than a few “bleeps” over the years. 

LIV is still on broadcast TV, but there are no major advertisers to upset. Golf is shown to a miniscule audience on the CW. The numbers say the PGA Tour is still demolishing LIV in the ratings. Hatton has his own sponsors, but he will be in team gear when he plays. 

Is there a way for LIV to offer Hatton unfiltered? Could they produce a stream of him being mic’d up and creatively package the highlights? Tell him not to worry about any fines? 

Maybe there is an opportunity there. LIV could go full WWE with the angriest pro golfer out there.

The Ryder Cup Will Be Forced to Change

Hatton signing with LIV is further confirmation that the European Ryder Cup team has to amend its anti-LIV policy. 

Both players have competed in the past three Ryder Cups, serving as critical leaders of the European side. Last September, Rahm and Hatton partnered to win two foursomes matches. 

A Ryder Cup without either player would significantly hurt the event. As the rules stand currently, Rahm and Hatton would not be eligible. 

We see this signing as a guarantee that captain Luke Donald will have both players at his disposal at Bethpage in 2025.

Rory McIlroy has already given his full support of the qualification criteria changing. What that will look like depends almost entirely on the PGA Tour-PIF partnership. 

There could be a separate Ryder Cup qualifying list for LIV. Or maybe qualifying becomes more limited and captain’s picks are free to be used on any player, regardless of tour. 

The Ryder Cup qualification for both sides could be completely reimagined at this point.

Hatton Will No Longer Be Involved With TGL—For Now

A small consequence: for the moment, Hatton reportedly has to pull out of the new TGL circuit scheduled to come online in 2025. 

Hatton had previously signed with the Boston Common franchise alongside McIlroy, Adam Scott and Keegan Bradley. However, TGL players must be in good standing with the PGA Tour in order to participate in the indoor simulator league. 

Rahm already pulled out of TGL prior to signing with LIV last month. TGL was slated to begin this month before a storm damaged the South Florida facility, postponing the launch date until next year. 

Could Hatton and Rahm get back into the league after a PGA Tour-PIF partnership? Would they even want to do that? 

We’ll have to wait on this one.

Conclusions

Hatton (and Rahm for that matter) signing with LIV probably won’t make a material difference in the league’s success.

If you haven’t been watching in the past, you probably won’t watch this year. Maybe LIV can find a way to become more entertaining, but we aren’t banking on it.

We are all waiting for the best players in the world to be back in the same place. The Hatton move seems to get us a little closer to that reality because the PGA Tour is in such an untenable position.

The deadline for a PGA Tour-PIF deal is set for April. Don’t be surprised if the pro golf world gets set for a massive makeover in the coming years.

In the meantime, the PGA Tour and LIV will compete for attention like never before. Unlike previous years, LIV chose to line their events up against the top tournaments on the PGA Tour.

Where will you be watching? Or will you not be watching at all?

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