Sad to See LIV Golf Fail: Memories of Our Annual Trips to JCB

I'm sad to see LIV Golf fail. There, I've said it, and I know that puts me in a minority down at the club.

Our annual trip to LIV Golf at JCB had become a fixture in the family calendar, especially after taking my kids last year and having a great time. ,For a working dad who gets out maybe 10 times a year, that weekend was worth more than any of the other rounds put together.

So yes, I'm sad it's gone. But I'd be lying if I said I was surprised.

How LIV Golf at JCB got under my skin

JCB Golf and Country Club sits in the Staffordshire countryside, about 2 hours from my door on a good day and a lot longer on a bad one. You come off the A50 and suddenly you're somewhere that feels like a proper tournament venue: stands, a practice range you could lose an afternoon on, and marshals who seemed genuinely pleased to see you.

What made it different from a normal Tour event was the access. We walked the whole course. We stood literally 2 feet from Bryson and knew every hole and its lsyour by the 2nd yesr. There was music between holes, food that didn't cost the earth, and nobody made you feel like you needed a hospitality lanyard to be allowed to enjoy yourself.

What LIV actually got right

Give credit where it's due. The golf in front of us was good.

• The field was strong. Whatever you think about how they got there, there were major winners walking past us.

• The shotgun start meant you could see everyone. No standing on one green waiting for the group behind.

• Three or four hours, not eight. That matters when there's a chance to get a few holes in before and enough time to travel.

• It felt like an event, not a library. Golf spent decades telling families to keep quiet. LIV let them make a noise.

If somebody had handed me that as a template for a family day out, I'd have told them to keep going. It worked.

Where the business model fell apart

It doesn't work, though. Look at it as a business rather than a party and the cracks are obvious.

The money came from a backer, not from us

Tickets were £100 for the weekend. Parking was cheap. The beer was cheaper than at a football ground. That only adds up if somebody else is picking up the tab, and the somebody else was writing cheques they were never getting back. A business that can't cover its costs from customers isn't a business. It's a sponsorship with a scoreboard.

I run a company. If nearly all my revenue came from one investor and I'd set my prices to give the product away, my accountant would have had a very quiet word with me long before now.

Free tickets build a day out, not a habit

We went every year because it was a cheap, brilliant day out. That isn't the same as being a fan of the tour. I never once looked up a LIV leaderboard on a Sunday afternoon. If the ticket had crept up towards the price of a Premier League match, I'd have thought twice, and I suspect most of that crowd would have done the same.

The broadcast money wasn't there

The whole model needed TV money to work, because the gate never covered it. Viewing figures of 50,000 on a free youtube stream for the UK events tell you everything. Broadcasters pay for an audience, and the audience wasn't turning up on a Sunday.

The calendar was against it

A UK event wedged between The Open and the school holidays, with the Ryder Cup sitting there as the thing fans actually care about. Golf's year is crowded. You can't build a habit in a gap.

What I'll take from it

Some very good days. A lad who now asks to go to the driving range on a Sunday instead of staring at a screen. A golf flag proudly on my wall and some incredible memories will make me smile fondly.

And a reminder that a great day out isn't the same as a viable business. The clubs that survive do it by filling tee sheets at a price people can afford, week in and week out, not by throwing a party once a year on somebody else's money.

Three questions for the next big thing

If another tour, or a slimmed-down LIV, ever pitches up at JCB again, I'll be near the front of the queue. But I'll be asking these before I buy:

• Can it pay for itself from tickets, TV and sponsors without a sugar daddy?

• Does winning actually matter to anyone outside the team bus?

• Would I still come back if the ticket was full price?

If the answer to any of those is no, it's a day out, not a tour.

For now our golf calendar is back to club courses and perhaps a return to Wentworth or the Open again, because that's the maths that matters when you're paying for a family as well as a hobby.