'More safe, more boring': The crucial ingredient that LIV defections robbed from PGA Tour

There's an old saying – live sport has always been and forever will be the best reality TV.

Golf is full of drama - Greg Norman's choke in the 1996 Masters, Rory McIlroy's missed putt at the 2024 US Open and then his emotional victory in the Masters last year.

So when a slew of stars defected to LIV Golf, it robbed the PGA Tour of a core ingredient in creating genuine, unscripted sporting drama: Rivalry.

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But the high-profile returns of former LIV stars Patrick Reed and Brooks Koepka has gifted the PGA Tour the opportunity to fundamentally transform the way it markets itself and the game of golf more broadly.

Loved by some and loathed by others with little in between, the 35-year-old Reed is one of the most talked about figures in golf. In the past, he's clashed with fans, rivals, the media, pundits, and even officials.

Having gained reputation in his college playing days, Reed has also faced high-profile allegations of cheating. He's been accused on several occasions - most notably in 2019 and 2021 - of illegally improving his lie in bunkers and waste areas. A commentator claimed to have seen him cheat four times.

He's also a self-professed "lone wolf". He has few friends on tour, is estranged from his family, and much prefers to do things "his way". That alone has endeared him to a legion of fans.

Koepka is a bit the same. He is occasionally blunt and dismissive with reporters, and for years his brand seemed to be that golf was just a job.

In a 2019 appearance on the Pardon My Take podcast, he famously said golf was "boring" and he regrets not chasing a career in baseball.

"Golf is kind of boring, not much action. I come from a baseball family, and it's in my blood," he said.

"If I could do it over again, I'd play baseball - 100 per cent, no doubt."

Their villainy should in theory make them among the most marketable assets the PGA Tour has, but it has historically not leant into any kind of negativity to sell tickets or get eyeballs on screens.

But a new boss at the helm of the PGA Tour might be the man to turn that around.

More safe. More boring.

When it poached the likes of Reed, Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson et al, LIV also poached pretty much the only blokes not scared of sticking their necks out, of saying what they think.

They were also bloody good golfers. This combination is what no doubt made them attractive to the organisers of a tour that vowed to change golf forever.

While the jury is still out on whether or not it achieved that objective, it did succeed in making the PGA Tour more sanitised. More safe. More boring.

Sure, the PGA Tour still had Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth, and still had more depth than the LIV tour, but it was starved of any kind of natural rivalry.

Fans got reminders of what could have been during the 2024 US Open at Pinehurst, when Rory and Bryson battled it out on the final day, with the latter coming out on top when the former soiled the proverbial on the 18th.

They of course repeated the feat in the final round of the Masters last year, where McIlroy finally won his green jacket and a career grand slam.

But those rivalries were very much built up by fans and media, with little if any assistance by the tour itself.

Sport, regardless of the game, needs villains. The PGA Tour's bland product supports the argument the villains are more important than the heroes.

In Australia, each of the ball codes make an effort to pump up rivalries when those sides meet - think Roosters-Rabbitohs, Collingwood-Essendon, or any of the local derbies. Even Supercars, in the wake of the controversial finish to last year's title, tried to build a narrative around Broc Feeney and Ryan Wood.

The 'real damage' done by LIV

Jay Monahan has been PGA Tour commissioner since 2017, but is in the midst of a 12-month handover to new chief executive Brian Rolapp.

Rolapp spent the past 20 years working for the NFL, and was the league's chief media and business officer when he left.

If there's any sport that knows how to lean into rivalry, it's the NFL.

Eamon Lynch is one of the most respected voices in golf. He said how the PGA Tour markets Reed in particular when he makes his full-blown return next season will set the tone for the rest of Rolapp's tenure.

"He's a test case for Brian Rolapp in how much he's willing or able to change the culture of the PGA when it comes to marketing their players," he said.

"Reed wasn't a difficult guy to bring back because he resigned his membership before going to LIV, so he didn't break any rules.

"He didn't join the anti-trust litigation - he's sued everyone else in golf since then but he didn't join the antitrust litigation against the tour - which counted for a lot in the locker room."

So although he might have few 'friends' in the locker rooms, he at least might have respect.

"We all know what sports fandom is. It's not just you want to see your team win, there's another team you want to see lose," Lynch continued.

"It's not just your favourite player winning, there's always someone you want to see come undone somehow. That's something the PGA Tour has never really leaned into.

"Patrick Reed did - he has no problem being polarising at all. No one is ambivalent on Patrick Reed at all. There are a lot of people who want to see him win the Masters, but there's a lot of people who wouldn't mind if he triple-bogeyed the last hole to lose by one either.

"That's simply the nature of sports fandom, and the tour has never leaned into that.

"They always want everyone to think all of these guys are charity-giving, puppy-loving good guys, and it's not necessarily true but it's a painfully democratic way to market your assets.

"If the tour is willing to lean into the villainy … that's the real damage LIV has done. It's taken away all the polarising guys."

The explosion in popularity in Formula 1 has been largely down to the massive success of the Drive to Survive documentary on Netflix. Tennis tried to follow suit with Break Point, as has golf with Full Swing.

Golf has enjoyed its own rise in popularity, but that's largely down to the 2020 pandemic and the fact it was one of few things people were able to do during the lockdown.

That rise hasn't really translated into an increase in viewership.

Where Drive to Survive was allowed to delve into the rivalry between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, Full Swing was not given the same opportunity with McIlroy and DeChambeau, or anyone else for that matter.

Reed and Koepka's return to the sport has given the PGA Tour an opportunity to completely overhaul how it markets itself.

Golf is full of drama, and if Rolapp plays his cards right and allows these natural rivalries to flourish in front of cameras, the sport could find itself attracting a hole new legion of fans - pun intended.