By:
Sean Zak
December 16, 2022
Atul Khosla sits alongside LIV Golf commissioner Greg Norman throughout a press convention in Could.
Getty photos
Within the waning moments after LIV Golf’s first season ended, lower than seven weeks in the past, President and COO Atul Khosla watched on as a live performance by The Chainsmokers kicked off. He had a slice of pizza in hand, surrounded by golfers, fellow executives, family and friends celebrating a profitable first season. When requested, “Are you able to promote this?” Khosla replied, “Completely. [I] needed to present the world what it was all about.”
However that might show to be Khosla’s closing occasion as LIV government. The COO has resigned his position from the controversial breakaway golf league in accordance with a report by The New York Instances, which was confirmed by LIV Friday night. In keeping with Sports activities Illustrated, Khosla left the publish shortly after the season ended, which might have been in November.
Information of Khosla’s exit comes on the midpoint of LIV’s first offseason, throughout which era a brand new schedule has been shaped and slowly leaked to the general public. The league remains to be searching for a broadcast companion. It’s unclear what led to his resignation, however Khosla just isn’t the primary LIV exec to resign throughout its inaugural season. Sean Bratches, initially LIV’s chief industrial officer, stepped down from his publish in Could earlier than the season started.
LIV Golf’s 2023 schedule: Right here’s what we all know to date
By:
Jack Hirsh
Simply someday after that year-end Chainsmokers live performance, Khosla stood in entrance of 10 media members explaining the enterprise mannequin for LIV Golf shifting ahead. The model had arrived through cannonball into professional golf’s usually calm waters, securing commitments from Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and others. Khosla, as President and COO, was a serious a part of the behind-the-scenes enterprise selections and seen as a legitimizing determine on the enterprise facet. Greg Norman, the golf legend bent on “rising alternatives for gamers,” was the chief out entrance.
However because the summer season progressed, Norman stayed faraway from the press whereas Khosla made extra appearances, talking out about LIV’s TV broadcast objectives, its pursuit of sponsors and, finally, speaking with media for greater than an hour in Miami seven weeks in the past.
“We’re determining what the industrial preparations might appear to be,” Khosla mentioned on Oct. 29. “I be ok with the place we’re however we have now work to do over the following couple of months. We predict we’re offering an unimaginable industrial product. These will not be six-month or one-year offers. If a TV community is getting behind this, it’s for a number of years.”
Up to now, none of that has manifested publicly. Precisely half of LIV’s 2023 schedule has been launched however the enterprise has not introduced any further participant commitments. Norman himself intimated that LIV was pursuing prime 20 gamers, however these potential bulletins will not be anticipated to happen for at the very least one other month. LIV famous it hoped to have its rostering finalized by the top of 2022, which is now simply two weeks away. Its first of 14 occasions in 2023 will happen Feb. 24-26 in Mexico, the identical week because the PGA Tour’s Honda Basic.
The standing of LIV Golf management has been put underneath extra of a microscope in latest weeks as The Telegraph reported that Greg Norman can be ushered “upstairs” as LIV Golf moved to rent a brand new CEO. LIV promptly denied the report. However Norman’s place as LIV’s chief has been questioned by non-LIV gamers similar to Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods. “Greg must go,” McIlroy mentioned throughout a press convention in November, to ensure that there to be a possible assembly between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour. Woods echoed his ideas at his personal press convention two weeks in the past.
However then, simply this week, Norman was quoted in the newest situation of Bunkered issuing a powerful rebuttal. “Rory and Tiger do not know what they’re speaking about,” he mentioned. “None in any respect … they’re making an attempt to bait me right into a public backwards and forwards with them and I’m not going to go down that infantile path.”