Hayrides, scripted answers, wild parties and clowns (real ones) — here’s what a week at a LIV Golf event is truly like

Players have joined together and found camaraderie as professional golf’s damned.

The battle royale for supremacy between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour has been one of the year’s biggest stories in all of sports, and perhaps the most paramount in professional golf over the past few decades.

Despite covering the upstart entity led by Greg Norman — and financially backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund — since it borrowed the idea from the Premier Golf League, I truly had no idea what to expect when I pulled into Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club for the first day of media access at the LIV Golf Invitational Series event in Portland.

What I learned over the next five days was eye-opening — good and bad. It doesn’t take long to realize there’s a clear market for LIV Golf, it just depends on what you’re looking for in a golf tournament. If you’re an avid fan who loves the game for the history and competition, these events likely won’t be for you. But if you’re a general sports fan who loves festivals and fanfare, it’s possible this will pique your interest.

Here’s what it’s like to spend a week in the life of LIV.