LIV Golf’s controversial inaugural season comes to an end. What’s next for league?

The most lucrative event of LIV Golf’s inaugural season came to an end on Sunday in Doral, Florida. It was also the final event of the controversial Saudi Arabia-funded league’s season.

When it was done, the total prize pool for the eight events – including individual bonuses – during LIV’s first season stood at $255 million.

This weekend’s LIV Golf Team Championship at Trump National Doral Miami included a $50 million purse, with most of that money still up for grabs entering Sunday’s third and final round. The three-day event began with 16 four-man teams on Friday, but only four teams were still alive for the first-place prize of $16 million on Sunday after four teams were eliminated on Friday and another four teams were eliminated on Saturday.

4 Aces GC won the Team Championship’s first-place prize of $16 million that will be split between golfers Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Talor Gooch and Pat Perez.

In a round of stroke play with all four individual scores counting toward each team’s score on Sunday, Johnson, Reed and Perez each closed at 2-under and Gooch came in at 1-under for a combined score of 7-under to earn the title.

“We played great as a team,” Perez said. “Yeah, all the push back, all the negative comments, all the everything (LIV has) gotten, at this point I really don’t care. I don’t care. I’m paid. I don’t give a damn. My team played unbelievable this year. I feel like I’m really part of something that I’ve never been part of.”

Punch GC closed in second place with a team score of 6-under to earn the second-place prize of $8 million that will be split between golfers Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman, Matt Jones and Wade Ormsby.

Smash GC came in at third place with a team score of 4-over to earn the third-place prize of $6 million that will be split between golfers Brooks Koepka, Jason Kokrak, Peter Uihlein and Chase Koepka.

Stinger GC finished in fourth place with a team score of 10-over to earn the fourth-place prize of $4 million that will be split between golfers Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace and Hennie du Plessis.

Playing in twosomes, Johnson and Smith went through their round together on Sunday with a group of at least 1,000 spectators lining the fairway when they teed off and then following them throughout the course.

Smith turned in the lowest round of the day at 7-under, but it was Johnson who clinched the victory for 4 Aces GC by sinking a 3-foot putt for par on the 18th hole on the final shot of the event to preserve his team’s one-stroke lead.

“I do not like stress and that was a little more stress than I was looking for,” Johnson said when asked about his title-clinching putt. “It’s different. If that was an individual tournament, it would have been no problem, that putt. It’s straight in from three feet. But with it being the team aspect and knowing I had to make that for the team to win, I didn’t like it very much. My hands were not real steady and I don’t know where I hit it on the putter face, but it went in.”

Johnson was the big winner during LIV’s inaugural season.

Johnson brought in about $35.6 million in LIV’s eight events. That includes an $18 million prize for winning the seasonlong individual title and the $4 million share he earned Sunday for helping 4 Aces GC with the Team Championship.

“It was pretty good,” Johnson said of his season. “I feel like I should have been a lot better. But I’m happy with what ended up happening, obviously winning the team championship. That’s what we came here for. Personally my season, you add up the numbers and it was great. But I played good, I didn’t play my best. It always can be better, but that’s golf.”

What’s next for LIV Golf? The offseason.

The current plan is for LIV’s second season to begin in February with an international tournament. There will be 14 LIV events in 2023, with a 48-player field for each competition, and the hope is for the first U.S. tournament of the season to be held in March.

“Next year we’re going to play 14 events plus (hopefully) the majors,” Phil Mickelson said on Sunday’s broadcast of the third round. “And that’s a lot of golf. I’ve got a lot of golf coming up next year and I really want to get back to the level that I know I can play.”

Mickelson, who’s the captain of LIV’s Hy Flyers GC that was eliminated Friday, is one of the high-profile players that LIV was able to poach from the PGA Tour. As LIV moves past its inaugural season that was met by plenty of backlash for challenging the PGA Tour and its ties to Saudi Arabia, the league hopes even better days are ahead.

LIV believes the team concept is what will set the league apart. It’s also an important part of LIV’s business model, with the hope that each team can become its own franchise and create its own revenue stream.

“I’ve been walking up and down the range this morning and not one of the players has spoken about the individuality of it, even though they love it. They’ve talked about the team,” LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman said on Sunday’s broadcast. “And they’re looking at that scoreboard for the other three players, what are they doing. And that, to me, is a very powerful statement about what we wanted to bring. That’s the virgin space that we recognized in the beginning. I wanted the players to have that opportunity.”

An opportunity that will continue next year amid the league’s critics and skeptics.

“As we look into 2023 and beyond, knowing the energy and enthusiasm that these guys have for the franchise, for their team, for what they’re doing, next year is just going to be explosive, quite honestly, because they’re embracing it all,” Norman continued on the broadcast. “And then you’re talking about the fans, right? And they’re loving it and just starting to grab that momentum. So it’s been a phenomenal year.

“We’ve had a lot of headwinds. We’ve weathered all the storms, and we’re here. We’ve got a great crew of people and we’ve got a great product and we’re off and running.”