The CW cut away from a LIV Golf playoff to air reruns and fans were dumbfounded

Dustin Johnson won a playoff in Tulsa but you’ll have to take LIV’s word for it

The first year of LIV Golf’s broadcast partnership with The CW reached a new low on Sunday. While Brendan Grace, Dustin Johnson and Cam Smith were battling in a three-way playoff at LIV Tulsa, the network incredibly switched from the live action to air various reruns across its regional outposts.

So instead of seeing Johnson rally back from an early triple bogey to win his second event on the Saudi-backed circuit, viewers were instead treated to either Family Feud, Penn & Teller or infomercials (depending on their market).

It’s not like other sports leagues haven’t dealt with similar issues. The NFL had its infamous Heidi Game. The NBA Finals were once on tape delay. Even the Miracle on Ice at the Lake Placid Olympics didn’t air live at the time. But that was all in the late 1960s through the 1980s. The TV landscape of today is incomparable — and we’re not even talking about streaming here.

Sure, a two-hour rain delay in Tulsa impacted Sunday schedules. Yet networks typically plan for those conflicts.

Which is to say what happened to LIV Golf on Sunday simply cannot happen in 2023. Not for an upstart league trying to grow an audience just days before one of the biggest events of the golf season takes place with the PGA Championship.

Fan reaction was all over the board with many laughing at LIV’s misfortunes and others genuinely upset they were missing a thrilling finish.