Newly crowned U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau will meet three-time Grammy Award winners Dan + Shay as the LIV Tour heads to The Grove golf course just outside Nashville this weekend.
With golfers like DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson competing during the day, LIV hopes to attract a wider audience by bringing in musicians like Dan + Shay for special concerts at night. In Nashville’s case, the country pop duo is set to perform Saturday.
AJ Dolan, vice president of music and event production at LIV, said music serves as one of the tent poles of their brand.
“We are really a festival with golf as the primary theme,” Dolan said of LIV, which was founded in June 2022.
In its first full year, LIV events featured concerts from artists like the Zac Brown Band, Lainey Wilson and Tiësto. So, when they were considering locations for the 2024 tour, Nashville – with its branding as Music City – seemed like a natural fit, organizers said.
“We are very data-driven in how we select venues,” said Ross Hallett, executive vice president and head of events at LIV. “The data told us Nashville would align well, and we’ve already seen that play out. Very few tickets remain for Friday and Sunday, and Saturday is sold out.”
LIV Golf features a team format with shotgun starts. 54 players are broken into 13 teams comprised of four players each, with two additional wild cards, according to LIV’s website.
The LIV Golf league is made up of 14 events, each held in a different city, and individual and team titles are up for grabs at the end of each season, the website said.
While still relatively young in its development as a league, Hallett believes that LIV is becoming increasingly more attractive in part due to its focus on music.
Each course is outfitted with nearly 200 speakers, and the first hole features walk-up songs for every golfer.
“Hole 15, our ‘party hole,’ will also have walk-up songs, and fans will be right on-top of the action,” Dolan said. “Another aspect that makes LIV unique is that all the players warm-up together. During those two hours, the music gradually builds, similar to the anticipation before a kickoff or puck-drop.”
Due to popular demand, LIV is also launching signature Spotify playlists. Each event will have its own regionally based songs that were played across the course during the tournament.
“It’ll provide nostalgia, and serve as another touchpoint for fans at home,” Dolan said.