Closer Look: When the Fairway Becomes a Stage
How LIV Golf is disrupting the sport through music.
Golf has always been a game of quiet traditions. The etiquette, the outfits and even the galleries are all built on restraint. Music, on the other hand, thrives on volume. It’s expressive, global and impossible to contain. Put the two side by side and you don’t just get an overlap, you get a collision.
That collision has been building momentum, and nowhere was it clearer than in LIV Golf’s 2025 Concert Series. Closing out tournaments with Swedish House Mafia, Imagine Dragons and Peggy Gou (just to name a few) turned the final putt into just one act in a larger show. The course became a stage, and the gallery became a crowd.
The shift isn’t confined to tournaments. Hollywood is leaning in too as Happy Gilmore 2 stacked its cast with Eminem and Bad Bunny, doubling down on golf’s crossover potential at the box office. Fashion is part of it as well: Drake’s NOCTA Golf line with Nike pulled hip-hop directly into the wardrobe of the sport, just as Macklemore’s Bogey Boys or Larry June’s gear reframe what it looks like to dress as a golfer.
And the list keeps growing. Justin Bieber dropped an album at an indoor putting green with Min Woo Lee. ScHoolboy Q is front and center in golf video games. DJ Khaled can’t go a day without broadcasting his swing.
So what’s happening here? It’s a cultural loop. As musicians and artists embrace the game, they bring their audience, their style and their energy with them. In return, golf sheds its image of quiet exclusivity and becomes a platform for expression.
