Ryder Cup legend predicts grim end for LIV Golf: "That could be the straw that broke the camel's back"

Former European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley says it could be the end of LIV Golf if TV ratings continue to underwhelm.

McGinley opened up on the subject of LIV Golf during a recent appearance on the Sliced podcast. 

The 58-year-old said the team format of the PIF-backed breakaway has never appealed to him. 

And to this day he can count on 'one hand' the people who have told him they watch LIV. 

"I never really thought it had legs on it to be cutting edge and new and amazing," McGinley said when asked where LIV is now compared to where the tour expected to be.  

"I don't think it's an exciting way of playing golf. It certainly doesn't light my fire. And to walk against the history of the tours was always going to be a very, very difficult thing to do.

"So I'm not a fan of it. I never have been. I've always been aligned with the traditional tours. 

"And it's very, very hard to show me a metric that says that it is successful, whether that be commercially, whether that be TV viewing figures, whether it be with all my friends.

"I'm always doing market research myself. 'Do you ever watch LIV?' I mean, honestly, I can count on one hand in the last three years that people would say, 'Yeah, I watch it all the time.' I wouldn't even get to five. And that's people in the golfing world.

"It's very unproven for me. And I know the attack dogs on social media will tell you otherwise, and they'll come up with all kinds of stuff – but there's no metric out there to say that it is really successful, that it's doing great, and it's about to pop."

In May, a detailed report from the Money in Sport newsletter revealed Saudi Arabia's PIF had spent nearly $5bn overall. 

That figure also includes money spent on player contracts, tournament operations, prize money as well as media rights and infrastructure. 

The report prompted five-time major winner Brooks Koepka to declare before LIV's stop in Miami: "I think we all hoped it would have been a little bit further along, and that's no secret."

McGinley questioned whether the PIF will continue spending after 'burning' that much money.

He said: "Are they going to continue doing that? I keep saying, Saudi Arabia is not a charity. They are not out there to give money away. They're out there to create businesses. I get that. 

"But at what stage do you invest $5bn into a sporting franchise that don’t have any metrics to say that it's going to be successful?"

Along with a struggle to secure world ranking points for their players, LIV also faced a protracted battle to secure a TV deal. 

The CW were the first to come on board and these days LIV broadcast their events on Fox. 

Therefore, it allows us to draw more accurate comparisons with PGA Tour broadcasts. 

"Will they be able to produce television figures, on a major network, anywhere near what the PGA Tour will do?" McGinley asked. 

"And if they do, well, then that would be a metric to say, well, that's okay there.

"I don't think that's going to happen."