By aligning with the sport’s two dominant governing bodies on agronomy, LIV Golf is doing more than tending its fairways — it is seeking institutional credibility as it expands into 10 countries across five continents in 2026.
The breakaway golf league LIV Golf has confirmed it will work with The R&A Sustainable Agronomy Service and the United States Golf Association (USGA) Green Section to implement a unified agronomic framework across its 2026 season, which visits venues in ten countries spanning five continents.
In a statement issued February 18, the league described the arrangement as a consulting partnership through which both bodies will guide host courses towards what it calls “championship-calibre” playing standards, with an explicit commitment to environmentally responsible turf management.
For LIV Golf, the agronomic collaboration carries implications beyond grass health. The league — which launched in 2022 with Saudi-backed funding — has faced persistent questions about competitive legitimacy. Securing formal technical cooperation from The R&A and the USGA, the joint custodians of the Rules of Golf, represents a meaningful institutional endorsement, even if the arrangement falls short of formal sanctioning.
The framework applies across a calendar that began at Riyadh Golf Club in Saudi Arabia in early February and continued at The Grange Golf Club in Adelaide, Australia — where attendance exceeded 115,000 fans, making it both the most-attended LIV event on record and the largest professional golf event in Australian history.
The consulting services focus on long-term course stewardship rather than event-week preparation alone, matching LIV Golf’s stated goal of leaving a “positive and enduring legacy” at every host site. For European sporting goods executives, the development marks a continued normalisation of LIV Golf’s operational standing within the sport’s institutional framework.
About LIV Golf
LIV Golf is a professional golf league founded in 2022 and backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). It competes on a shotgun-start, 54-hole format and has signed several of the world’s highest-ranked players. The league operates independently of the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, though ongoing discussions about a structural resolution between LIV and the PGA Tour have been a fixture of golf’s business landscape since 2023.
About The R&A
The R&A is one of golf’s two governing bodies, based in St Andrews, Scotland. It is responsible for organizing The Open Championship and administering the Rules of Golf outside the United States and Mexico in partnership with the USGA. Its Sustainable Agronomy Service offers technical consultancy on turf management and course care.
About the USGA
The United States Golf Association (USGA), headquartered in Far Hills, New Jersey, governs golf in the United States and Mexico. Its Green Section is the agronomic consultancy arm, providing research, education, and on-course advisory services to golf facilities worldwide.
