NEW ORLEANS — The LIV Golf League has added a summer season match in New Orleans for 2026 after Louisiana agreed to pay the Saudi-backed tour $5 million and spend an extra $2.2 million on enhancements to the Bayou Oaks course in Metropolis Park.
“What an unbelievable alternative to announce this on the Twentieth-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina,” Gov. Jeff Landry stated at an announcement alongside LIV Golf officers and LIV participant Bubba Watson.
New Orleans already has a long-running PGA Tour cease with the Zurich Traditional at TPC Louisiana. Watson — who grew up about three hours away in Pensacola, Florida — gained the Zurich in 2011 and hailed his alternative to play professionally in New Orleans once more.
“I’m from the Gulf Coast and that is half my residence,” Watson stated, drawing laughs when he joked about attending many New Orleans Pelicans video games desirous to see often-injured NBA star Zion Williamson play. “I nonetheless hope for that day.”
Watson sounded unconcerned concerning the match dates in late June, when warmth advisories and thunderstorms are widespread. June additionally falls inside hurricane season, albeit nearer to the start. The Zurich often takes place in April.
“That is the primary 12 months of it, so the date can all the time be modified if it does come right here a number of years,” Watson stated. “It’s going to be sizzling in quite a lot of locations in the summertime. … I’ve grown up within the South; I find out about warmth. We simply put together for it.”
This season, a LIV Golf match was held in Dallas in late June, when daytime temperatures hovered round 90 levels.
“We’re going to strive it out after which we’ll see,” Landry stated. “Whether or not we’ve acquired to regulate the dates after this go-around, we’ll see. However my goal is to have this be LIV’s residence.”
Louisiana this 12 months supplied financial improvement funding of about $650,000 for advertising and operations to the Zurich Traditional. TPC Louisiana additionally periodically receives state subsidies for course and facility enhancements.
LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil declined to get into specifics about how the $5 million Louisiana is paying to host an occasion compares to the quantity of public funding for occasions held elsewhere.
“All of the markets are distinctive,” O’Neil stated. “All of them include their distinctive challenges and alternatives.”
Organizers stated the occasion is predicted so as to add about $40 million in financial exercise to the native economic system.
Landry stated the New Orleans settlement “offers us a possibility to speculate” within the course and the over-170-year-old, 1,300-acre Metropolis Park — of the most important city parks in the US.
“This can be a public piece of property,” Landry stated. “This space wants revitalization.”
Landry doesn’t play golf and stated he typically has not attended skilled tournaments, partially as a result of followers usually are anticipated to be quiet. LIV encourages a livelier fan expertise at most tournaments than its rival PGA Tour.
“That’s simply not me,” Landry stated. “That’s why I really like LIV Golf. No ‘quiet’ indicators. It’s a celebration.”
Landry dismissed considerations about whether or not New Orleans, which has a metro-area inhabitants of simply greater than 1 million and few company headquarters, might adequately assist each a PGA Tour and LIV Golf occasion.
“I don’t suppose these occasions compete towards one another,” Landry stated. “This is a chance to deliver a unique group of individuals on one other course.”
