If the PGA Tour was a group of football fans, they’d be chanting ‘all gone quiet over there’ at LIV Golf.

The controversial breakaway league shook the entire sporting world with its inception in 2022 – but 2023 has been different.

Last year, a never-ending wave of defecting players threatened the very existence of the Pga Tour and professional golf as we know it.

Lured by outrageous amounts of Saudi cash, huge names such as Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith took the leap – and it felt like more would follow.

But they didn’t. At least, not anybody to write home about.

During the first off-season, LIV announced the signings of Thomas Pieters, Mito Pereira, Sebastian Munoz, and a few others.

More notable was the list of people who left the organisation.

Managing director Majed Al Sorour, chief operating officer Matt Goodman, chief commercial officer Sean Bratches and president of franchises Atul Khosla all departed.

There were even questions over the future of CEO Greg Norman, as LIV delayed the announcement of its 2023 field and schedule.

They did strike a TV deal, albeit with the CW Network, an American streaming service better-known for teen dramas such as The Vampire Diaries and Jane the Virgin.

But fans have proven to be more interested in the news surrounding LIV than the events themselves.

At one point during the 2022 season finale, LIV’s live stream on YouTube dipped below 10,000 viewers, less than a video dedicated to finding out whether ex-prime minister Liz Truss could outlast a lettuce.

In its 2023 season opener, LIV drew a 0.2 per cent rating across 33 markets in the 18-49 demographic, with more people on the CW opting to watch World’s Funniest Animals.

The apparent novelty of shotgun starts, team formats and 54 holes seems to be wearing off even further, with this year’s second LIV event dropping to a 0.14 per cent rating in the same fields.

It comes after the circuit’s organisers admitted to making ‘virtually zero’ revenue in its opening season after splurging around £600million of Public Investment Fund cash.

LIV expect teams to become franchises worth millions of dollars, like the Indian Premier League, but some of them are currently struggling to secure simple sponsorship deals.

With a bottomless pit of money, many believe Saudi Arabia do not care for LIV’s success, using it simply as a sportswashing tool.

But despite pledging £2billion to the league, the PIF has cut back on many of the lavish expenses from the debut season.

It is understood teams are now asked to cover many of their own expenses – a far cry from the luxurious private jet parties seen throughout 2022.

That would suggest the PIF are interested in making this whole thing work – but how, when all momentum seems to have been lost?

Much of its hope would seem to hinge on an antitrust case against the PGA Tour.

After every rebel was suspended by the PGA Tour, LIV has been contesting the sanctions for their players in court – but that isn’t going great, either.

A temporary restraining order for LIV golfers Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones to play in the FedEx Cup play-offs was denied by a judge and the full case will not be heard until 2024.

It has also been ruled that the PIF’s governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who also happens to be the chairman of Newcastle, must submit to discovery in the PGA Tour’s counter claim – and many feel the Saudis would sooner drop the case than allow that to happen.

In the meantime, LIV players are tumbling down the Official World Golf Rankings because the breakaway league is yet to be awarded points.

And what about the other side? LIV appears to have inspired action on the PGA Tour.

Earlier this month, the PGA Tour announced a radical new direction for the 2024 season, including smaller fields and the removal of cuts.

‘Designated events’ have been introduced this year to ensure the game’s elite players compete at the same tournaments on a regular basis and play for bigger purses.

Now, the Tour has gone a step further by dramatically decreasing the size of the fields at designated events.

Starting next season, eight tournaments will be reduced to 70-80 man fields and a strict qualification criteria will be introduced to ensure only the top players are involved.

The remainder of the schedule will be made up of full-field tournaments with smaller purses, giving rank-and-file players the opportunity to play their way into big events.

This, essentially, resolves most complaints from the PGA Tour’s most valuable players that could tempt them into joining LIV.

Suddenly, there are whispers of remorse among some of the LIV players.

Of course, the Johnsons of this world will forever be indifferent as they happily sail into the sunset with their huge signing bonuses.

But fierce competitors such as Koepka, who told Netflix he would ‘swap all the money to win one more time’, may start to question what they signed up for and what they left behind.

As the Masters approaches and LIV inevitably reinserts itself into the spotlight, past champion and rebel Bubba Watson suggested the whole ‘civil war’ narrative is a creation by the media.

“I’m going to be honest, man. It’s only awkward in the media,” he insisted.

“Media is the only one that is pushing it. I have nothing against anybody. If you change jobs, I’m not mad at you.”

Truth is, nobody in the press forced Patrick Reed to throw a tee at Rory McIlroy, or made Sergio Garcia admit his relationship with the Northern Irishman has turned sour.

There are players attending the Masters Champions Dinner who preside on opposite sides of active lawsuits.

And without all the drama, it is hard to see what remains of LIV.

With no qualification criteria and ongoing questions over its sporting integrity, victories for Charles Howell III and Danny Lee in 2023’s first two LIV events have done little to legitimise the project.

Koepka’s triumph in Orlando over the weekend was a bigger win for LIV, especially given the American’s recent starring role in ‘Full Swing’ and the beginning of Masters week.

But with the four-time major winner experiencing such poor form in recent years, it is difficult to know whether he is actually back, or just enjoying success at a lower level of golf.

Due to the nature of a 14-event calendar with guaranteed money in every place on the leaderboard, featuring a number of players with no standing in the game, even Koepka’s own coach Pete Cowen doesn’t expect LIV players to compete at the Masters.

“I’m not optimistic about players who aren’t playing competitively on a regular basis,” Cowen told The Times. “It’s a big deal. Like any sport, if you’re not competitively sharp, you struggle.”

So where does LIV go from here? Quite simply, commissioner Norman needs one of his superstars to turn up at the majors – for a bit of noise and disruption, if nothing else.

Norman recently said each one of the 18 LIV players involved at Augusta would be on the 18th green if one of their colleages won.

A LIV win at the Masters would restart the conversation and reinvigorate a league that is threatening to stagnate already.

Because right now, there isn’t much to shout about.