Is the music about to end? LIV Golf faces an uncertain future - ESPN

WESTFIELD, Ind. — The music is stubborn and relentless, moving clumsily from rap to country to pop. At the Club at Chatham Hills, where the beat reverberates throughout the housing complex that surrounds the golf course with sameness, LIV Golf wants to convince everybody in attendance that they are guests at a party and not witnesses at a wake.

A smattering of fans sit on a small hill next to the par-3 12th tee box — this week's «party hole,» LIV's version of the 16th at the Phoenix WM Open — sun-smacked and coated in layers of sweat. On the other side of the tee, a barricaded section labeled for holders of the «Grounds +» pass hosts no more than six people. The get-in price for the premium area was $81 at the beginning of the day, but by Thursday afternoon, it had been slashed to $53 just as Dustin Johnson stepped into the makeshift box and LIV's emcee tried his best to get the sparse crowd going.

«Come on guys, let's get up, we got DJ!»

Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau are LIV's biggest draws. Johnson is its forgotten man. When he left the PGA Tour in 2022, he was just a year removed from being the No. 1 player in the world. Now, he's two years removed from his last victory and has recorded five missed cuts and no top-10s in majors over the past three years. Nevertheless, he has made nearly $70 million in winnings on top of the initial $125 million contract he signed. Like several others, he is a strutting symbol of what LIV has given and what it has taken.

«Make some noise!»

The emcee pleads with the crowd before the actual DJ plays Morgan Wallen's «Just in Case,» Johnson's chosen walk-up song. Johnson makes contact with the ball and winces — his patented fade doesn't fade.

A few groups later, when it is Tyrrell