LIV Golf announce Lawrence J. Burian as new chief operating officer

As COO, Lawrence J. Burian will have a wide range of responsibilities including corporate development and strategy. (Supplied)
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Updated 24 October 2023
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LIV Golf announce Lawrence J. Burian as new chief operating officer

  • Former executive vice-president at Madison Square Garden Co. brings extensive experience across the sports, entertainment, media and hospitality sectors

LIV Golf have announced that Lawrence J. Burian has been appointed Chief Operating Officer after a competitive international recruiting process.

As COO, Burian will have a wide range of responsibilities including corporate development and strategy, the delivery of LIV Golf’s global schedule of 14 league events, the management and commercialization of the teams, investor relations, and general day-to-day business operations.

“I am excited to join LIV Golf as Chief Operating Officer and look forward to harnessing my more than two decades of senior executive experience to help build on the progress and momentum that is well underway,” said Burian.

“The creation of a new global sports league in less than two years was nothing short of extraordinary and now is the time to capitalize and build on that success,” he added.

“LIV Golf has a very bright future as we seek to continue growing the game of golf, engaging new audiences, enhancing the guest experience, innovating our event and media production and building franchise value, all while creating a compelling home for our world-class athletes. I’m committed to working with my talented colleagues at LIV Golf towards achieving our ambitious goals.”

As a former executive vice-president with the Madison Square Garden family of public companies, Burian has extensive experience across the sports, entertainment, media and hospitality sectors.

A selection of MSG companies include the New York Knicks (NBA) and New York Rangers (NHL) franchises, two MSG regional sports networks (with telecast rights to seven professional sports franchises), and the famed MSG arena.

Burian served in multiple executive roles across the portfolio of assets, including as head of corporate development, general counsel and as a member of the board of directors of multiple strategic joint ventures.

“Lawrence is a proven leader and a proven winner, and we couldn’t be more excited to have him on our executive leadership team,” said LIV Golf CEO and Commissioner Greg Norman. “After more than two years of breaking molds and pushing boundaries, LIV Golf is on the precipice of significant growth. Lawrence’s decades of business experience are exactly what we need to keep us competitive and moving forward.”


4Aces take LIV Golf Singapore team lead after Johnson’s 8-under 63

Updated 14 March 2025
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4Aces take LIV Golf Singapore team lead after Johnson’s 8-under 63

  • Johnson has won once in each of LIV Golf’s first three seasons and can become the first player to win in all four seasons
  • “I couldn’t turn my head to the right,” Johnson explained

SINGAPORE: 4Aces GC Captain Dustin Johnson is back to full strength — and back at the top of the leaderboard.
Johnson leads LIV Golf Singapore presented by Aramco by three shots after a bogey-free 63 in Friday’s opening round at Sentosa Golf Club. His 8-under round matches his best single-round LIV Golf performance, relative to par, in 109 career regular-season rounds.
His 4Aces, seeking their first win since 2023, lead the team competition by two strokes over Torque GC.
A week ago in Hong Kong, the 40-year-old Johnson woke up prior to the first round with a sore right shoulder that limited his range of motion. He shot rounds of 75 and 72 to drop to last place after the first two days.
“I couldn’t turn my head to the right,” Johnson explained. “I kind of just pulled when I was on the through swing, so I was hitting everything left. It wasn’t a whole lot of fun.”
He received treatment between rounds and his body finally responded prior to Sunday’s final round. He shot a 6-under 64, tying for the third-best score of the day, but the leaderboard damage had been done, as he finished last for the first time at a LIV Golf tournament.
Feeling good about his game entering last week, Johnson said it was easy to dismiss the first two rounds and the final result because of the injury.
“Swung it really nicely on Sunday,” he said. “Obviously, the body loosened back up and I could hit the shots that I wanted.”
In shooting 63 at Sentosa’s Serapong course on Friday, Johnson hit 16 greens, tying for best in the field, and missed just three fairways. Meanwhile, his putter heated up, especially at the par-3 14th when he rolled in a birdie putt from 58 feet.
“I put a lot of work in the last couple of days on the putter,” Johnson said, “and it paid off.”
Johnson will enter the weekend seeking his fourth league individual title. He has won once in each of LIV Golf’s first three seasons and can become the first player to win in all four seasons.
His closest pursuer is Torque’s Sebastian Munoz, who continues to push for his first LIV Golf title. Munoz shot a 5-under 66 to take solo second. He has held or shared second after five of the first 10 rounds of the 2025 LIV Golf season.
“I don’t know if I’m going to get it done this week, but I’m working hard at it,” Munoz said. “I want that opportunity again.”
Eight players are tied for third after shooting 4-under 67, including five team captains: Jon Rahm (Legion XIII), Brooks Koepka (Smash GC), Joaquin Niemann (Torque GC), Louis Oosthuizen (Stinger GC) and Cameron Smith (Ripper GC).
Rahm is the reigning LIV Golf Individual Champion and Niemann already has a win this season. Koepka is the defending Singapore champion while Smith tied for second with teammate Marc Leishman as the Rippers won the team title in 2024.
The 4Aces shot a collective 14 under, while Torque is at 12 under. Phil Mickelson’s HyFlyers GC are another two strokes back, with all four of their players shooting in the 60s. Not only do the Aces have a lengthy winning drought, Torque also hasn’t won since 2023, while the HyFlyers have yet to win a team trophy.
“We’ve got a lot of golf to play in the next two days,” Niemann said. “We’re excited to see what’s coming.”
Team scores
LIV Golf’s new scoring format this season now involves all four scores now counting in every round in the team competition. (Click here for more on the new format). Here are the results and scores for each team after Friday’s Rd. 1 of LIV Golf Singapore.
1. 4ACES GC -14 (Johnson 63, Reed 68, Varner III 69, Pieters 70)
2. TORQUE GC -12 (Munoz 66, Niemann 67, Ortiz 68, Pereira 71)
3. HYFLYERS GC -10 (Tringale 67, Mickelson 69, Ogletree 69, Steele 69)
4. FIREBALLS GC -7 (Ancer 67, Puig 68, Masaveu 70, Garcia 72)
T5. STINGER GC -5 (Oosthuizen 67, Schwartzel 68, Burmester 70, Grace 74)
T5. LEGION XIII -5 (Rahm 67, Surratt 68, Hatton 70, McKibbin 74)
7. RIPPER GC -3 (Smith 67, Herbert 68, Jones 72, Leishman 74)
T8. RANGEGOATS GC -2 (Uihlein 68, Campbell 68, Watson 70, Wolff 76)
T8. IRON HEADS GC -2 (Lee 68, Catlin 70, Jang 72, Na 72)
10. SMASH GC -1 (Koepka 67, Kokrak 68, Gooch 70, McDowell 78)
11. CRUSHERS GC +1 (Casey 67, Lahiri 70, DeChambeau 74, Howell III 74)
12. MAJESTICKS GC +8 (Stenson 71, Westwood 72, Horsfield 73, Poulter 76)
13. CLEEKS GC +10 (Meronk 70, Bland 71, Kaymer 73, Kjettrup 80)
Wild Cards: Lee 70, Kim 73


Camilo Villegas, Lucas Glover among those sharing Players Championship lead on wild day

Updated 14 March 2025
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Camilo Villegas, Lucas Glover among those sharing Players Championship lead on wild day

  • Lucas Glover had nine birdies in his round of 6-under 66, leaving him tied with Villegas and J.J. Spaun
  • Two-time defending champion Scottie Scheffler figures he left a few shots out there — two birdie chances were in the 8-foot range — but was satisfied enough with a 69

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida: Camilo Villegas was on the phone the day before The Players Championship trying to sort out his swing with a coach who is in Singapore caddying at a LIV Golf event. He wound up tied for the lead, a peculiar twist in a tournament filled with them.

Thursday was no exception.

Lucas Glover had nine birdies in his round of 6-under 66, leaving him tied with Villegas and J.J. Spaun, who managed to get around the TPC Sawgrass without a bogey.

Max McGreevy, who tied the tournament record for the highest score two years ago with an 89, had a chance to join them. He was at 5 under and faced a 15-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole when play was suspended by darkness.

Rory McIlroy made four birdies from tee shots that found the rough or the pine straw, including the 18th hole when he punched a shot off the pine straw and out of the trees to 7 feet, putting him in the group at 67.

“You’re just hoping for a backswing and a gap, and I had both of those,” McIlroy said. “Just trying to chip-and-run a 5-iron up around the front of the green and make 4 and get out of there. It was a bonus to get it up on the green and hole the putt was a lovely way to finish.”

Two-time defending champion Scottie Scheffler figures he left a few shots out there — two birdie chances were in the 8-foot range — but was satisfied enough with a 69.

Villegas was on the verge of losing his card two years ago when he connected with Jose Luis Campra, a respected Argentine professional who caddies on the side. He currently is looping for Sebastian Munoz on LIV, which is in Singapore this week.

“It was 9 a.m. here, it was 9 p.m. there,” Villegas said. “We worked for a couple hours. He’s a very, very hard worker. Very few guys give more golf lessons than Jose Campra, and he’s always available for me. So it’s great.”

It was a small tweak on the downswing, and Villegas took that to the dangerous Stadium Course and promptly made five birdies on the back nine to start his round. There were a few mistakes, typical for most players.

That’s what this course does. Slight misses can turn into big numbers.

Chandler Phillips experienced both. He set a Players Championship record with three eagles. He also had four birdies, an astonishing performance wiped out by a triple bogey on the par-3 eighth hole that started with a tee shot into a palmetto bush.

Justin Lower had the best par of all. He was one of 10 players to hit their tee shots into the water on the island green at the par-3 17th. He was the only player to walk away with par, going to the drop zone and holing his wedge.

Max Greyserman wasn’t so fortunate. He put two in the water and had to make a 12-foot putt for his quadruple bogey.

Glover isn’t sure what to make of his record at the TPC Sawgrass, 10 times missing the cut with only two top 10s. But there was no big secret on this day. He hit it where he was aiming and made putts, with birdies on his final four holes.

It stood out amid some surprising scores on a gorgeous day. Justin Thomas hit four tee shots into the water and had to birdie the last two holes for a 78. Viktor Hovland had three double bogeys in his round of 80.

Jordan Spieth had an eagle, birdie, par, bogey and double bogey in his opening six holes. He played far boring golf — which he prefers — with seven pars, a birdie and a bogey on the back nine and it added to a 70.

“That’s the thing about this place,” Glover said. “There’s always some really good scores and always some really bad scores. The margins are razor thin here, akin to say Augusta or Bay Hill. You get off just a little, you can make big numbers in a hurry.

“I happened to have a bunch of good numbers today and a bunch of good yardages and was able to be aggressive and I putted great.”

Glover was not immune. He was too aggressive on the par-5 11th with a wedge and wound up in a pot-shaped bunker for bogey. He dropped another shot on the next hole.

But it was the finish that set him apart — an approach to 5 feet on the 15th, a chip to tap-in range on the par-5 16th, an 18-foot birdie putt on the island green par-3 17th and a shot that caught the slope and fed down to 8 feet for birdie on the 18th.

The 45-year-old former US Open champion is having a late resurgence in his career, particularly impressive from having overcome the putting yips about a decade ago. He never gave up the grind and finally cashed in by winning the Wyndham Championship and the opening FedEx Cup playoff event in consecutive weeks in 2023.

“Just don’t want to be done at 45, honestly,” Glover said. “I deep down believe I can still compete out here at 45 and I don’t want to stop anytime soon.”

McGreevy was among five players who didn’t finish before darkness. He was to resume at 8 a.m., and then everyone gets to do it all over again.


The secret to Sawgrass for The Players Championship: Play well and stay out of trouble

Updated 13 March 2025
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The secret to Sawgrass for The Players Championship: Play well and stay out of trouble

  • The PGA Tour’s premier event — it has been referred to as the “fifth major” — begins Thursday with the same level of intrigue
  • Scheffler has a chance to join Jack Nicklaus as the only three-time winners of The Players Championship

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida: The 25 newcomers to The Players Championship probably won’t take much solace in hearing that only one player — Craig Perks in 2002 — has conquered the diabolical Stadium Course at the TPC Sawgrass in his debut over the last four decades.

Just as curious is the case of Scottie Scheffler. Last year he became the first player in the history of this championship to win in consecutive years.

Tiger Woods for all his greatness won it only twice. Phil Mickelson won in 2007 and some eight years later after missing the cut said, “I can’t believe I’ve actually won here.”

The PGA Tour’s premier event — it has been referred to as the “fifth major” — begins Thursday with the same level of intrigue. There are great players. There are players in great form. But anything goes over the next four days.

The secret to Sawgrass?

“Playing good,” said Scheffler, who last year had to make up a five-shot deficit with a sore neck by holing out for eagle on the fourth hole on his way to a 64.

“You can’t fake it around this place,” Scheffler said. “I think there’s a lot of genius in the way the golf course is designed. There is some volatility in terms of the hazard. That provides a lot of volatility for how the golf course can play, especially in high wind.

“It doesn’t suit one type of player,” he said. “It’s not a horses-for-courses-type place. It’s just the guys that are playing the best are going to be on the leaderboard on Sunday.”

That sounds simple enough, thought that requires a view of Perks in 2002. He played great that week — turns out it was his only PGA Tour victory — but had to chip in for eagle from the edge of the 16th green, hole a long birdie putt on the 17th and then chip in for par on the 18th.

Simple.

If the island green at the par-3 17th, or water in play on all but a handful of holes isn’t enough, the PGA Tour restored the tree that hung sideways over the tee box on No. 6 that frames the shot and gives players one more thing to think about.

“I certainly have to hit it a little lower than my preferred launch window,” Rory McIlroy said.

McIlroy won in 2019 and he has three other top-10 finishes. He also has missed the cut seven times, keeping in form of other past champions.

“You just have to be so on your game here,” McIlroy said. “I think that’s the main key. It’s such a course on execution, and if you’re not executing like 100 percent, you leave yourself in spots where it’s really tough to get up-and-down. You have to hit the ball where you’re looking, and if you can do that, you can do well here.

“It’s one of the best tests of the year, for sure.”

Among the newcomers this year is Laurie Canter of England, who got plenty of attention Wednesday during the first-timer interviews because he spent parts of three years cashing in at Saudi-backed LIV Golf.

Canter was an alternate who was never in trouble with the European tour because he had limited status. And then he played beautifully enough to work his way into the top 50 in the world, the final push a runner-up finish in the South African Open.

Six others have won for the first time in the last year, three of them in 2025 — Brian Campbell (Mexico), Joe Highsmith (PGA National) and Karl Vilips (Puerto Rico).

Scheffler has a chance to join Jack Nicklaus as the only three-time winners of The Players Championship. Nicklaus won his three before it moved to the TPC Sawgrass in 1982.

The Masters champion is still waiting to hit his stride after sitting out all of January with a hand injury from trying to cut ravioli with a wine glass.

But he has been on an amazing run, capped off by his nine-win season in 2025, winning back-to-back at The Players and building such a big lead at No. 1 in the world that he is assured of being atop the ranking for two straight years. No one except Woods has done that.

“Scottie is the closest thing to Tiger I think any of us have seen,” Wyndham Clark said. “He not only is the No. 1 player in the world, he embraces it, and he shows up every week and almost wins or is in contention or does win. It’s very impressive.

“I think he’s kind of the mark we’re all trying to get to, and I have nothing but respect for everything that Scottie is doing, and I love that it doesn’t affect him,” Clark said. “It hasn’t gone to his head. He just continues to be Scottie and goes about his way.”


Trump has ‘bolstered’ PGA-LIV reunification talks: Monahan

Updated 12 March 2025
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Trump has ‘bolstered’ PGA-LIV reunification talks: Monahan

  • Hopes of a breakthrough had risen after Trump hosted PGA and LIV chiefs at the White House last month in talks that Monahan described as “real and substantial”
  • Monahan said he had built a relationship of “mutual respect” with LIV Golf chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who he said could conceivably be welcomed onto the board of the PGA Tour eventually “to move the global game forward”

MIAMI: President Donald Trump’s intervention in negotiations between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf has “significantly bolstered” hopes of reunifying the fractured sport but “hurdles” to a deal remain, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said Tuesday.

Speaking ahead of The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, Monahan said Trump, who has hosted two rounds of talks at the White House involving leaders of the PGA and Saudi Arabia-financed LIV, had made a deal between the two sides more likely.

But Monahan told a press conference that while some hurdles had been removed during negotiations, “others remain” without revealing what were the stumbling blocks preventing a final agreement.

Hopes of a breakthrough had risen after Trump hosted PGA and LIV chiefs at the White House last month in talks that Monahan described as “real and substantial.”

“Those talks have been significantly bolstered by President Trump’s willingness to serve as a facilitator,” Monahan said Tuesday.

“President Trump is a lifelong golf fan. He believes strongly in the game’s power and potential, and he has been exceedingly generous with his time and influence to help bring a deal together.

“He wants to see the game reunified. We want to see the game reunified. His involvement has made the prospect of reunification very real.”

Monahan said he had built a relationship of “mutual respect” with LIV Golf chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who he said could conceivably be welcomed onto the board of the PGA Tour eventually “to move the global game forward.”

However, Monahan said that while “important aspects” LIV Golf could be incorporated into the PGA Tour, any unification deal would not “diminish the strength of our platform.”

“Our team is fully committed to reunification,” Monahan said. “The only deal that we would regret is one that compromises the essence of what makes the game of golf and the PGA Tour so exceptional.”

Asked for an example of what might diminish the PGA Tour, Monahan was tight-lipped but hinted that the impasse could be linked to the PGA Tour’s traditional four-round, 72-hole format versus LIV’s abbreviated 54-hole standard.

“If you look at the PGA Tour today and the strength of our organization, the momentum that we have as an organization and what we stand for, I mean ultimately if you’re a player anywhere in the world, this is the platform that you want to get to,” he said.

“These tournaments are 72-hole stroke play tournaments at historic, iconic venues ... That’s who we are as an organization, and that’s who we’ll always be as an organization.”

Monahan said fans simply wanted to see the best players playing against each other. At the moment, golf’s four annual majors are the only events that see players from both circuits competing against each other.

“I think what our fans are telling us is that they want to see the best players in the world playing together more often and that’s what really is the focus of the conversations,” he said.

Two-time major-winner Justin Thomas, meanwhile, said players were fatigued by the long-running saga of golf’s schism.

“I think this is the third time I’ve played this tournament while this has been going on in some way, shape or form,” Thomas said. “I think we’re kind of like past the level of exhaustion... obviously like the rest of us, we would love for it to be done sooner rather than later.”


Fireballs, Garcia claim wins at LIV Golf Hong Kong

Updated 09 March 2025
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Fireballs, Garcia claim wins at LIV Golf Hong Kong

  • Spanish star leads his team to double tries as Mickelson makes first podium

HONG KONG: Sergio Garcia and his red-hot Fireballs GC team captured both trophies on Sunday at LIV Golf Hong Kong, while HyFlyers GC Captain Phil Mickelson appears to have recaptured his Hall of Fame form.

Led by their captain Garcia, the Fireballs have now won back-to-back tournaments, having claimed LIV Golf Adelaide last month. They will head to next week’s LIV Golf Singapore presented by Aramco seeking to become the first LIV Golf team to win three consecutive tournaments since the league expanded to a full 14-tournament schedule in 2023.

Garcia shot a bogey-free 7-under 63 to finish at 18 under and claim the individual title by three shots over hard-charging Dean Burmester, whose 62 was the low round of the day. Garcia, who finished third in the season-long Individual Championship race last season, moved atop the points standings after the first three events in 2025.

The 45-year-old Garcia played the final hole on Sunday with a comfortable individual lead but needed to make par to avoid dropping into a team playoff with Burmester’s Stinger GC. Facing a lengthy birdie putt, he rolled it to within tap-in range to seal the Fireballs’ sixth LIV Golf team title in club history. They climbed atop the season-long team standings by 10 points over Legion XIII.

“It was nice to see not only that I was doing well and leading the tournament, but my teammates were playing great,” said Garcia, who follows teammate Abraham Ancer as individual champions in Hong Kong. “They were keeping us there with a chance to win. Obviously when you can pull the double, it’s a lot sweeter than if it’s just one of them. Very proud of them.”

The Fireballs and Stingers appeared headed for a playoff until Luis Masaveu, the 22-year-old Spaniard signed by Garcia in the offseason, birdied his final hole, the short par-4 10th. “It feels incredible,” said Masaveu. “… Very happy for the team to be able to hole that putt and help them.”

Masaveu shot an even-par 70, with Ancer shooting 65 and David Puig a bogey-free 67 for a three-day team total of 37 under. The South African Stingers shot 17 under as a team Sunday to finish one shot back. Mickelson’s HyFlyers GC tied for third at 34 under with Cameron Smith’s Ripper GC, the reigning Team Champions. It was the HyFlyers’ third podium result in team history.

Individually, Mickelson finished solo third after his 64 left him at 14 under. It is the first podium finish for the 54-year-old Mickelson since joining LIV Golf as an original member in 2022, and it could not have come at a better time with golf’s first major just a month away at the Masters.

“The fact is, I’m hitting a lot of good shots. I’m playing some good golf,” said Mickelson, who has won three of his six majors at Augusta National. “This is a building week as I continue to build into LIV and my goal of accomplishing a win in LIV as well as winning another major or getting ready for Augusta.”

Garcia is also a past Masters champion, and his form has been superb for more than a year. Since the start of the 2024 LIV Golf season, he has two wins, three other runner-up finishes, and 13 top 20s in the last 16 LIV Golf regular season events, including 10 straight after Hong Kong.

He entered Sunday’s final round with a share of the lead but made an early statement by holing a lengthy eagle putt at the par-5 third after finding the green in two with a 6-iron. That gave him a two-shot lead, which he never relinquished.

“It really got me in a good mood,” Garcia said of the eagle. “I was very focused on what I wanted to do. But obviously when that happens, it gets you going even more.”

Always one of golf’s best ball-strikers, Garcia’s putting was dialed in at Hong Kong Golf Club, as he ranked third in the field in fewest putts during the week after switching to one of his old putters.

“I played with him yesterday,” Masaveu said. “He’s a machine.”

Asked if Garcia with a hot putter is as good as it gets in professional golf, Ancer offered a one-word response: “Yes.”