Incheon: With music blaring behind the tees and along the fairways, and with cell phone-wielding arms up and "Quiet Please" signs nowhere to be seen, a LIV Golf event is a departure from your typical golf tournament. South Korean golf fans got their first taste of the experience Friday, as LIV Golf Korea began play with 54 players in action at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea in Incheon, some 30 kilometers west of Seoul.
According to Yonhap News Agency, this is the first LIV Golf tournament in this country since the Saudi Arabia-backed tour's launch in 2022. The new circuit tried to separate itself from the PGA Tour in several ways, both in its competition and in spectator experience. The season is much shorter, running from February to August, and each event is only 54 holes long with no cut, compared to 72-hole competition on the PGA Tour. LIV players are also allowed to wear shorts in hot conditions.
LIV Golf also has 13 teams, with four players each, and the top-eight teams and ties earn points on a sliding scale at each tournament. LIV tournaments have a shotgun start, in which players all tee off simultaneously from different holes, as opposed to having staggered tee times from either the first or the ninth holes at set intervals.
Silence is a virtue for fans at other golf tournaments. But at LIV Golf Korea on Friday -- just as previous stops -- music blared through speakers set up throughout the par-72, 7,376-yard course, even as players were taking their swings. From Bee Gees to G-Dragon to Queen, there was something for every musical taste, too.
Another distinct feature for a LIV Golf tournament is the "Party Hole," a designated hole, often a par-3, that offers a stadium-like atmosphere with music and an open-air terrace dubbed "Birdie Shack." At Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea, the par-3 eighth is the Party Hole, giving fans in the hospitality area a full view of the teeing area and the green.
Conspicuous by their absence Friday were marshals and volunteers holding up "Quiet Please" signs when golfers were ready to hit their shots or putts. Under a section titled "Golf Etiquette," LIV Golf's website instructs fans that they should stop and be quiet when they see the "hands in the air" gesture during play. However, the only hands that went in the air were those of fans holding their smartphones, to either take photos of their favorite golfers or film those players' swings.
And there is no shortage of star power in LIV Golf. LIV has lured some big names with lucrative contracts, including Hall of Famer and six-time major champion Phil Mickelson, five-time major winner Brooks Koepka and former world No. 1s Jon Rahm and Dustin Johnson. According to LIV Golf, the players currently on its tour have combined for 632 professional victories, and 14 of them have won a major title.
On Friday, Mickelson played alongside Sergio Garcia and Bryson DeChambeau, two other major champions and marquee names, and the three attracted a big crowd. Joaquin Niemann, the hottest player in LIV Golf this year with three wins in six tournaments, played with Rahm and two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson.
A trio of South Korean-born players representing the Iron Heads Golf Club also drew a sizable following, with Korean American Kevin Na, the team captain, joined by Incheon-born Kiwi Danny Lee and former KPGA Korean Tour star Jang Yu-bin, who became the first South Korean national to join LIV Golf last December.