16 May 2023 , 18:40
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LIV Golf faced humiliation as the final round of their latest tournament was snubbed by their American television distribution partner, The CW.
Dustin Johnson, Branden Grace, and Cameron Smith were involved in a three-way battle at Cedar Ridge Country Club in Tula, Oklahoma - which eventually went to a play-off. Fans though didn't get to see the action live on TV as the broadcaster told them to revert to the app or their website as they favoured other shows.
Johnson would go on to claim victory in a play-off but the lack of coverage of the final holes will serve as a blow to LIV, who continue to try and rival the PGA Tour. LIV commentator Arlo White made it known that coverage was about to stop, which happened across five different markets.
In Miami, CW affiliate WSFL made the change over to their scheduled programming which was a re-run episode of the ABC sitcom 'The Goldbergs'. The final episode was shown earlier this month. In Los Angeles flagship CW station KTLA showed an episode of the pre-taped news program 'Frank Buckley Interviews'.
CW's other flagship station, WPIX in New York City, broadcasted an episode of the network's magic competition series 'Penn & Teller: Fool Us'. The affiliate station WNLO in Buffalo, New York, left the golf to show a skincare infomercial for 'Crepe Erase Ultra by Body Firm'.
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The Tulsa market, which is where the golf was being played, saw the local station KQCW leave the event as it moved on to another re-run - this time an episode of the CBS sitcom, 'The Neighborhood'.
LIV Golf had aired the early events on their own website last season before they agreed to a deal with The CW for a national broadcast back in 2023. Despite that 17 regular affiliates of The CW Network have declined to show the golf series because weekend afternoon programming isn't specified under their existing contracts.
The divide between LIV players and the rest will again be a talking point this week at the PGA Championship. Justin Thomas is the defending champion and the wait for a first LIV player to win a major goes on after Jon Rahm chased down Brooks Koepka at the Masters recently.
Koepka has previously won this major twice, his last success coming in 2019. Smith is the series' most recent major champion, claiming the Open at St Andrews just weeks before he joined LIV.