Over the past few weeks, two of LIV Golf’s biggest stars, Jon Rahm and Phil Mickelson, have both expressed that they believe LIV could go to 72 holes.
While speaking to BBC Sport, Rahm said he “wouldn’t mind” going to 72 holes.
“If there ever was a way where LIV could go to 72 holes I think it would help all of this argument a lot.”
“The closer I think we can get LIV Golf to some other things the better. I think it would be for some kind of unification to feed into a world tour or something like that.
“I don’t know if I’m alone in this, but I definitely wouldn’t mind going back to 72 holes.”
Phil Mickelson, while speaking after his final round at The Masters, also said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if LIV went to 72 holes.
“I don’t think it makes a difference either way. We’ve got mini-tours playing 54, Champions Tour playing 54. I wouldn’t be surprised if some or all of LIV events went to 72. I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter. I enjoy the competition.”
Another one of LIV’s top players, Talor Gooch, expressed on Wednesday that he feels quite differently.
“It’s just funny to me, this arbitrary number of 72.”
“Why is it not 90? “Why is it not 108? We just decided to make that number the number, for what reason?”
“Everyone’s talked about world ranking points and all this stuff, but no one’s talked about what do the fans enjoy more?”
“People want something that’s going to be more exciting. And I personally think that the 54 holes is more exciting for the fans.”
After Gooch’s comments, I decided to get some fan feedback for myself, making a poll on X. With about 4,500 votes in at the time of writing this, roughly 84% of voters in the poll indicated they’d prefer 72 holes to just 16% saying they’d prefer 54.
Rahm prefers 72 holes
Gooch prefers 54 holesWhere do the fans stand?
— Matt Vincenzi (@MattVincenziPGA) April 17, 2024
