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LIV Golf players list: Everyone who has quit PGA Tour and DP World Tour to play in the 2023 series

Cameron smith, dustin johnson and phil mickelson are among other players to have pledged their commitment to liv golf.

When the highly contentious LIV Invitational Series resumes in 2024, it will boast reigning Masters champion and world No 3-ranked Jon Rahm as the latest of golf’s most famous players who have signed up to play .

Rahm , a four-time winner on the 2023 PGA Tour, member of Europe’s Ryder Cup -winning team and prior critic of the LIV format , joins the league bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in a deal reportedly worth up to £450m.

Rumours had begun to swirl over the Spaniard’s future, including when he was notably absent from the line-up of golfers committed to the PGA Tour’s American Express stop in January, as well as withdrawing from the Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy -backed TGL league’s inaugural season last month.

And despite admitting his decision to join LIV was a “risk” in terms of his future participation in the Ryder Cup – the 29-year-old will need to remain a member of the DP World Tour to be eligible for the biennial USA vs Europe showdown – Rahm told Fox News : “Things have changed a lot in the game of golf over the past two years and I’ve seen the growth of LIV Golf and the innovation.

“That’s why I’m here today. This decision was made for many reasons and what I thought was best for me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great deal.”

The 2024 LIV Golf schedule will feature 14 stops, including new events in Las Vegas, Houston and Nashville.

2024 LIV Golf Schedule 2-4 February:  LIV Mayakoba — El Cameleon Country Club 8-10 February : LIV Las Vegas — Las Vegas Country Club 1-3 March:  LIV Saudi Arabia — TBD 8-10 March:  LIV Hong Kong — Hong Kong Golf Club 5-7 April:  LIV “USA” — Location and course TBD 26-28 April:  LIV Adelaide — The Grange Golf Club 3-5 May:  LIV Singapore — The Serapong Golf Club 7-9 June:  LIV Houston — The Golf Club of Houston 21-23 June:  LIV Nashville — The Grove Golf Club 12-14 July:  LIV Andalucia — Real Club Valderrama 25-28 July:  LIV UK: Staffordshire — JCB Golf and Country Club 16-19 August:  LIV Greenbrier — The Old White Course at the Greenbrier TBD:  LIV Golf Individual Championships TBD:  LIV Golf Team Championships.

Who played in the 2023 LIV Golf series and how did it work?

The financial package put forward by LIV Golf seduced Dustin Johnson , Lee Westwood , and Sergio Garcia from the get-go last year, with Phil Mickelson, Ian Poulter and plenty of others signing up soon after.

Mickelson was reportedly paid $200m (£159m) just for turning up, while Johnson, the top-ranked player to have joined so far, earning $150m (£119m). Johnson announced his resignation from the PGA Tour in order to concentrate fully on the new tournament fronted by former world No 1 Greg Norman, but the PGA has since suspended all players to have made the switch.

Besides the eye-watering signing-on-fees, the prize money on offer is staggering. There is a $25m (£19.9m) purse to be split between the 48 players per tournament in the eight-event series, with the winner pocketing $4m (£3.2m) and the loser earning $120k (£95k).

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The format is also very different from traditional majors. There are 54 rather than 72 holes for a start – “LIV” is 54 in Roman numerals – there is a “shotgun” start where players tee off at the same time, and golfers are grouped into teams of four.

Johnson is captain of the “4 Aces”, Mickelson is leading the “Hy Flyers” and Poulter is affiliated to “Majesticks”.

The first 2022 tournament was held in England, with subsequent events taking place in Portland, Bedminster, Boston, Chicago, Bangkok, Jeddah and Miami.

In the build-up, players faced questions about “sportswashing” and whether Saudi Arabia is seeking to deflect attention from its human rights record by investing so heavily in the sport. Mickelson previously called the Saudis “scary motherf**kers” before backtracking.

“I don’t condone human rights violations at all,” he said. “I’m certainly aware of what has happened with Jamal Khashoggi and I think it’s terrible. I have also seen the good that the game of golf has done throughout history and I believe LIV Golf is going to do a lot of good for the game as well.”

Graeme McDowell said “we’re not politicians, we’re professional golfers,” in regards to the country’s human rights record and Talor Gooch responded “I’m a golfer, I’m not that smart”. Poulter and Westwood both said they would not answer “hypothetical questions” when asked whether they would have played in a tournament held by Vladimir Putin or in South Africa during Apartheid.

Four-time major winner Brooks Koepka, former US Open winner Bryson DeChambeau and ex-Masters champion Patrick Reed signed up to the breakaway competition after the first event, while Paul Casey was also confirmed in early July.

Open champion Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann were then among a fresh wave of players unveiled by LIV Golf.

The 2023 series kicked off in Mayakoba in February, followed by tournaments in Tucson, Orlando, Adelaide, Singapore, Tulsa, DC, Valderrama, London, Greenbrier, Bedminster, Chicago, Miami and Jeddah.

2023 LIV Golf players list A-Z

Here are all 48 players who competed in the 14-event series in 2023.

There were 12 teams in total, with 13 major champions in the field, 16 nations represented, and a combined 125 Ryder Cup appearances.

Four players – Dustin Johnson, Martin Kaymer, Brooks Koepka and Lee Westwood – have held the title of world No 1. Scroll down for the teams and more analysis.

• Abraham Ancer
• Richard Bland
• Dean Burmester
• Laurie Canter
• Eugenio Chacarra
• Bryson DeChambeau
• Sergio Garcia
• Talor Gooch
• Branden Grace
• Sam Horsfield
• Charles Howell III
• Dustin Johnson
• Martin Kaymer
• Brooks Koepka
• Chase Koepka
• Jason Kokrak
• Anirban Lahiri
• Marc Leishman
• Graeme McDowell
• Phil Mickelson
• Jediah Morgan
• Sebastian Munoz
• Joaquin Niemann
• Andy Ogletree
• Louis Oosthuizen
• Carlos Ortiz
• Mito Pereira
• Thomas Pieters
• Ian Poulter
• Patrick Reed
• Charl Schwartzel
• Cameron Smith
• Brendan Steele
• Henrik Stenson
• Cameron Tringale
• Peter Uihlein
• Harold Varner III
• Scott Vincent
• Bubba Watson
• Lee Westwood
• Bernd Wiesberger
• Matthew Wolff

LIV Golf 2023 team names and roster

• 4Aces – Dustin Johnson (captain), Patrick Reed, Pat Perez, Peter Uihlein
• Cleeks – Martin Kaymer (captain), Graeme McDowell, Richard Bland, Bernd Wiesberger
• Crushers – Bryson DeChambeau (captain), Paul Casey, Charles Howell III, Anirban Lahiri
• Fireballs – Sergio Garcia (captain), Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Eugenio Chacarra
• HyFlyers – Phil Mickelson (captain), Cameron Tringale, James Piot, Brendan Steele
• Iron Heads – Kevin Na (captain), Sihwan Kim, Scott Vincent, Danny Lee
• Majesticks – Ian Poulter (co-captain), Henrik Stenson (co-captain), Lee Westwood (co-captain), Sam Horsfield
• RangeGoats – Bubba Watson (captain), Harold Varner III, Talor Gooch, Thomas Pieters
• Ripper – Cameron Smith (captain), Marc Leishman, Matt Jones, Jed Morgan
• Smash – Brooks Koepka (captain), Matthew Wolff, Jason Kokrak, Chase Koepka
• Stinger – Louis Oosthuizen (captain), Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace, Dean Burmester
• Torque – Joaquin Niemann (captain), Mito Pereira, Sebastian Munoz, David Puig

Analysis: LIV Invitational is morally bankrupt and won’t revitalise golf

By Matt Butler

The name is quite clever: LIV. In Roman numerals it is 54 and the players in this new incarnation of golf kicking off in the exotic locale of Hemel Hempstead will play that many holes. Neat, huh?

Of course, you might say that a new sporting franchise bolstered by limitless petrodollars would be expected to be creative with its branding.

But the new kid in town is a sign that golf is in desperate need of some love. Whether that love comes from a despotic regime with a dreadful record on human rights is something for Phil Mickelson , Dustin Johnson , Lee Westwood and, err, James Piot to ponder as they chase a ball around a course for a share of 20 mill a tournament.

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And if you put aside the ickiness of the Saudi regime behind Jamal Khashoggi ’s killers providing the lipstick and mascara to the game, the concept of a quickfire bunch of tournaments with a set season and eight-figure sums of cash riding on each one sounds intriguing – even if the reason why players joined appears to be all about the money. Not that cold hard cash as a motivator is news, especially in the world of golf.

The rules are thus: everyone tees off at once. It is called a shotgun start, which sounds a little violent, given the paymasters, but I guess bonesaw start would have been too much. Twelve teams of four play in a match-play format, with individual members also competing in a strokeplay competition. There is no cut to miss. So far, so mildly diverting.

However, toe-curlingly twee “Camden Market-style” stalls, a Craig David and Jessie J gig and Sporty Spice on the decks post-match does not sound like much of an answer to the organiser’s promise to “supercharge” golf.

Read Matt’s full analysis here

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Current major eligibility list for all liv golf players.

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This week, the PGA of America published its field list for the 2024 PGA Championship , and 16 LIV golfers will be teeing it up at Valhalla Golf Club next week, headlined by defending champion Brooks Koepka.

The 16 LIV participants at the PGA matches the number who competed at Oak Hill last year, and is three more than the 13 who competed at Augusta National last month (the Masters’ field size is substantially smaller).

While LIV players remain eligible for majors, no governing bodies to date have offered a direct pathway through performance on LIV, meaning qualification is very difficult for those without previously existing exemptions.

The PGA of America did keep with its past practice of inviting players inside or around the top 100 of the world rankings who were not otherwise in the field, and several LIV players fell into that category this week: Adrian Meronk (63 rd ), Lucas Herbert (89 th ), Patrick Reed (92 nd ), David Puig (106 th ), and Dean Burmester (130 th ).

Talor Gooch, LIV’s individual champion last season, was also invited despite being ranked 644 th .

This post tracks future major eligibility for all 55 golfers who have made a LIV start this year (the 52 players assigned to a team plus the 3 individuals who have competed so far). Updates will be made as necessary throughout the spring:

Past major champions with full major access (6)

Bryson DeChambeau (Won 2020 U.S. Open)

• U.S. Open through 2030
• Masters, PGA, The Open through 2025

Dustin Johnson (Won 2016 U.S. Open; 2020 Masters)

• Masters for life
• U.S. Open through 2026
• The Open through 2025
• PGA through 2024

Brooks Koepka (Won 2017 and 2018 U.S. Open; 2018, 2019 and 2023 PGA Championship)

• PGA for life
• Masters, U.S. Open through 2028
• The Open through 2027

Phil Mickelson (Won 2004, 2006 and 2010 Masters; 2005 and 2021 PGA Championship; 2013 Open)

• Masters, PGA for life
• The Open through 2030 (when he will be 60 years old)
• U.S. Open through 2025

Jon Rahm (Won 2021 U.S. Open; 2023 Masters)

• U.S. Open through 2031
• PGA, The Open through 2027

Cameron Smith (Won 2022 Open)

• The Open until age 60
• Masters, PGA, U.S. Open through 2027

Past major champions with some major access (7)

Sergio Garcia (Won 2017 Masters)

Martin Kaymer (Won 2010 PGA Championship; 2014 U.S. Open)

• U.S. Open through 2024

Louis Oosthuizen (Won 2010 Open)

Patrick Reed (Won 2018 Masters)

• PGA Championship in 2024 (special invitation)

Charl Schwartzel (Won 2011 Masters)

Henrik Stenson (Won 2016 Open)

Bubba Watson (Won 2012 and 2014 Masters)

Past major champ whose exemptions have expired (1)

Graeme McDowell (Won 2010 U.S. Open)

Note: McDowell’s last major appearance came in 2020. The champion exemption for the U.S. Open is 10 years – by far the least favorable exemption for a past major champ. The Masters and PGA are “for life,” while The Open allows past champs to play until age 55 (reduced from age 60 starting in 2024 for all future Open champions).

Left for LIV in 2024 with exemptions already sealed (2)

Tyrrell Hatton

• 2024 Masters: Qualified for 2023 Tour Championship; OWGR top 50 at the end of 2023
• 2024 PGA: Finished T-15 in 2023 PGA
• 2024 U.S. Open: Qualified for 2023 Tour Championship
• 2024 Open: Top 30 in 2023 Race to Dubai and FedExCup standings

Adrian Meronk

• 2024 Masters: OWGR top 50 at the end of 2023
• 2024 PGA: Special invitation
• 2024 U.S. Open: Top 2, not otherwise exempt, from 2023 Race to Dubai
• 2024 Open: Top 30 in 2023 Race to Dubai standings

Exemption(s) earned while on LIV through non-OWGR based criteria (4)

Dean Burmester

• 2024 Open: Won Joburg Open on DP World Tour in Nov. 2023 (part of Open Qualifying Series)

Talor Gooch

Joaquin Niemann

• 2024 Masters: Special invitation
• 2024 Open: Won ISPS Handa Australian Open on DP World Tour in Dec. 2023 (part of Open Qualifying Series)
• 2024 Open: Won IRS Prima Malaysian Open on DP World Tour in Feb. 2024 (part of Open Qualifying Series)

Earned invitation through OWGR criteria (2)

Lucas Herbert

Andy Ogletree

• 2024 PGA and Open: 2 nd on OWGR International Federation Ranking exemption (top 3 are exempt into 2024 PGA and top 5 are exempt into 2024 Open)

Not currently exempt into any majors, slim prospects outside of open qualifying (33)

• Abraham Ancer
• Richard Bland
• Laurie Canter
• Eugenio Chacarra
• Branden Grace
• Sam Horsfield
• Charles Howell III
• Anthony Kim
• Jason Kokrak
• Jinichiro Kozuma
• Anirban Lahiri
• Marc Leishman
• Sebastian Munoz
• Carlos Ortiz
• Mito Pereira
• Thomas Pieters
• Ian Poulter
• Kalle Samooja
• Brendan Steele
• Caleb Surratt
• Hudson Swafford
• Cameron Tringale
• Peter Uihlein
• Harold Varner III
• Kieran Vincent
• Scott Vincent
• Lee Westwood
• Matthew Wolff

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News & Tours

From DJ's landmark leap on down, analyzing the 42 players in the inaugural LIV Golf field

At long last, the LIV list is live. The challenger to the PGA Tour’s hegemony over elite professional golf publicized its initial participants on Tuesday evening , releasing 42 names that are set to tee it up in the upstart circuit’s inaugural event next week outside of London. Included are: players we knew were going, players we suspected might be going, players we never really heard about but make a ton of sense, players who are complete surprises, and one generational superstar who flip-flopped seemingly at the last minute. Here’s our best crack at categorizing each of the 42 players set to tee it up at Centurion Golf Club next Thursday, exploring why they might’ve made the choice that they did and forecasting what happens next.

The no surprises

Sergio garcia, richard bland, ian poulter, martin kaymer, lee westwood, kevin na, graeme mcdowell.

Ian Poulter

Jamie Squire

Each of these guys essentially told us they were making the leap—Westwood and Bland were the most open in public about their choice, while Sergio spilled the beans in a heated exchange with a rules official last month. The average age of these seven is 43.3 years old, and each know that their best days as top-flight contenders are in the rearview mirror … and getting smaller and smaller in that mirror. Garcia, Poulter, Kaymer, McDowell and Westwood are putting any future Ryder Cup captaincy roles in danger , but they likely believe such that A) such a ban would not hold up in court or B) the Ryder Cup/major championship ecosystem will back off any hardline stance and learn to exist in a world with both the PGA/DP World Tour and LIV Golf Investments. In that sense, it’s a long-term bet for them, with a healthy financial reward even if they don’t get everything they want. McDowell has been closely linked with LIV since the beginning and is one of the only big names playing in the Asian Tour Invitational Series event in England this week. Bland is an especially interesting case : he’s shot to relevance in his (very) late 40s and, results-wise, he’s playing the best golf of his life, but he knows it likely won’t last much longer. And for a guy who oscillated between the lower levels of the European Tour and the Challenge Tour for two-plus decades, this is an opportunity to parlay a year-ish of solid play into multiple guaranteed millions of dollars. Na (who has won more than $37 million in career earnings on the PGA Tour) pushed hard to get a pick for the last year’s Ryder Cup team, didn’t get it, and might figure that he’ll never quite crack that elite tier of American professional golf. Plus, he telegraphed the move when he inked an endorsement deal with Golf Saudi earlier this year.

MORE: RBC on Dustin Johnson’s LIV Golf announcement: ‘extremely disappointed’

The in-their-prime (ish) DP Worlders

Laurie canter, justin harding, sam horsfield, pablo larrazabal, adrian otaegui, jc ritchie, bernd wiesberger.

Bernd Wiesberger

Richard Heathcote

The PGA Tour has become a much, much richer offering over the last 10 years, but the DP World Tour (formerly European Tour) has lagged considerably behind. And the Old World Circuit seems to have less leverage than ever on the global golf stage; it has acted in lockstep with the PGA Tour throughout this process, aligning itself with its richer American counterpart in an effort to fend off the challengers. The PGA Tour can make a compelling case to players that they can earn absurd heaps of cash by staying, but the DP World Tour cannot , and that puts guys like these in an interesting spot. Each of these five are in the prime-ish of their career, and each have been among the better players on the DP World Tour of late … but none have turned that success into a PGA Tour card. That’s going to be especially costly beginning in August, when the DP World Tour loses its minimum-points threshold from the Official World Golf Ranking. That’s expected to weaken the DP World Tour’s standing in the rankings, and guys like Larrazabal, who have been able to hang inside the top 100 with the semi-frequent high finish in Europe, could well see their ranking drop considerably. So they’re now faced with a choice: stay on the DP World Tour, playing for $2 million purses in full-field events, or make the jump and play for $25 million to be split 48 ways. The DP World Tour declined to comment on the LIV list on Tuesday night, as did the PGA Tour. It’ll be fascinating to see how CEO Keith Pelley and his tour reacts given their seeming lack of leverage.

MORE: The tricky situation the DP World Tour faces with LIV Golf

The better players from the weaker tours

Oliver bekker, hennie du plessis, sadom kaewkanjana, sihwan kim, phachara khongwatmai, ryosuka kinoshita, jinichiro kozuma, jediah morgan, shaun norris, hideto tanihara, scott vincent, blake windred.

Shaun Norris

Warren Little

You might think of professional golf as a three-or-four tour ecosystem, but it’s a large world out there, and the vast majority of it isn’t private jets and courtesy cars. This bunch has been grinding away on various regional tours for the majority of their professional lives, clawing for modest sums of cash … and along comes an entity promising to double or triple or quadruple their career earnings with just a couple of strong finishes. These guys won’t attract many American eyeballs but it’s hard to fault their reasoning for giving themselves a go. If they get banned from the Sunshine Tour, to cherry pick an example, that’s a risk they are willing to take in order for a life-changing sum.

The amateurs/youngin’s/not-yet-established

Ratchanon chatananuwat, andy ogletree, turk pettit, james piot, david puig.

Chris Keane

Chatananuwat, 15, is the No. 8 amateur in the world and the youngest winner of an event on an OWGR-sanctioned tour. Ogletree won the 2019 U.S. Amateur at Pinehurst but has yet to have any success at all on the professional level. Turk Pettit won the 2021 NCAA individual crown but has also struggled to find footing as a pro, though it’s early. James Piot is the reigning U.S. Amateur champ who just turned pro last week after a senior season that fizzled. Spain’s David Puig is No. 9 in the amateur rankings and currently competing for Arizona State at the NCAA championships. Chatananuwat and Puig will likely be playing as amateurs, though they can still be compensated through NIL deals, which Pettit, Ogletree and Piot will be cashing checks. Zoom out a bit, and none of these fives have a PGA or even a European Tour card, so any potential sanctioning of members from those tours won’t impact them. This is a chance to play against stronger fields than they’d get to anywhere else with little risk of damaging their future career.

MORE: PGA Tour U changes eligibility with specter of LIV Golf looming

The fresh-start, what-else-am-i-gonna-do crowd

Oliver fisher, chase koepka, wade ormsby, peter uihlein.

Chase Koepka

Cliff Hawkins

Fisher, a 33-year-old Englishman, is ranked No. 979 in the world and at risk of losing his DP World Tour playing privileges. Chase Koepka has received a bunch of sponsor’s invites because of his last name but has not done much with them. Ormsby is outside the top 250 and creeping toward his mid-40s. Uihlein, a 32-year-old former can’t-miss Oklahoma State kid and top-ranked amateur, is in no-man’s land between the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour and not playing particularly well on either. This event throws a bone to guys like these whose careers are sputtering in neutral.

The competitive, international PGA Tour players

Branden grace, matt jones, louis oosthuizen, charl schwartzel.

Louis Oosthuizen

David Berding

The South African contingent has long been rumored to be ready to make the jump—Grace is 34 and no longer the Presidents Cup stalwart of his younger years, Oostuizen will turn 40 later this year and has long given the impression that spending time on his farm and riding his tractor with his kids, is more important than any golf event. Schwartzel, while still very much competitive, likely isn’t winning many more tournaments of consequence. These guys likely view LIV as an opportunity to play less golf, for more money, which would allow them more time to spend back home or with their families. Jones is a bit of a surprise given he’s firmly inside the top 100 of the World Ranking, but he’s also north of 40 and has the Australian connection with Greg Norman. Saying goodbye to these won’t crush the PGA Tour, but they’re notable names that are still good enough to compete on the best tour in the world.

The in-their-prime PGA Tour players

Talor gooch, hudson swafford.

Talor Gooch

Mike Ehrmann

When this list was eventually released, these were the types of names I scanned for first: not-old, not-struggling PGA Tour players in the height of their careers. Gooch, 30, is a legitimate shock; he’d just begun to establish himself as a top-50 player in the world , and that comes with a bunch of spoils—spots in all the majors, more money from sponsors, better chance at the FedEx cash, the ability to hand-pick your own schedule … and then he jumps. A curious one for sure. He either believes any ban from the PGA Tour won’t hold up in the courts or that he’s good enough to earn his card back through Q-School/Korn Ferry if it comes to that. (Or, and don’t rule out this possibility, this Oklahoma kid can’t take his eyes off all those zeros in the check he’s getting). Swafford has won twice in the last 21 months and would seem to be living a rather comfortable life on the PGA Tour, but there is always the opportunity for more.

The headliner

Dustin Johnson

David Cannon

DJ had been rumored to be involved with this from the start, but he seemed to plant his flag in the Ponte Vedra corner when he released a pro-PGA Tour statement in February. But then he turned up to the PGA Championship at Southern Hills singing a different tune, talking vaguely about how competition betters golf and how he’s looking forward to seeing how everything plays out. There’s a good chance LIV’s delay in releasing this list is because they still hadn’t secured Johnson’s signature, but now they have their guy, and the statement Johnson’s agent gave told you everything you needed to know: “Dustin’s been contemplating this for the past two years and decided it was in his and his family’s best interest to pursue it,” David Winkle said. “He’s never had any issue w/PGA Tour and is grateful for all it’s given him but in the end felt this was too compelling to pass up.” Translation: I’ve done a ton on the PGA Tour, but I want the money. DJ has long been open about how small his circle is and how he doesn’t really care about anyone outside of it. The drawbacks to this decision—how it might impact his reputation or legacy on the PGA Tour—weren't big enough to dissuade him from jumping. He tends to view things devoid of context, which is a huge asset to his golf game, and for him this was a question of more money versus less money. And he took more.

The names that aren’t there

LIV released 42 names, with five more to be filled based on the results of this week’s Asian Tour event, which leaves one spot available for … well, we don’t know for sure, but you have to think it’s Phil Mickelson. Despite all the noise after his interview with Alan Shipnuck dropped, Mickelson never wavered from his pro-LIV stance and his apology read more like a mea culpa to his Saudi backers than to the PGA Tour. It’s telling that in the midst of his hiatus, his representatives felt the need to clarify that he’d applied for a release to play in the LIV event, which suggests his plans and his allegiances have never changed. Don’t be surprised in the slightest if his playing becomes official in the coming days.

Phil Mickelson

Gregory Shamus

As far as the countless other notable names not on this list—just because they’re not playing in London doesn’t mean they’re not interested or planning to play in LIV events. There are dozens of players who have not ruled this out—for so many of these guys, loyalty to the PGA Tour and morality-based decisions take a back seat to money and self-interest, and we say that without judgment—but merely want to wait and see what happens to the guys who jump first before they make their call.

The PGA Tour will not discipline players until they actually stick a tee in the ground at the first LIV event, and the action they take—and how it holds up to an inevitable legal challenge—will go a long way in determining the future landscape of professional golf. Do not underestimate the power of unlimited money being doled out by an entity whose motivation runs far deeper than bottom-line profit.

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LIV Golf Invitational Series: Players, teams, results and all you need to know from inaugural season

Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace, Henrik Stenson and Dustin Johnson have won the first four LIV Golf events, while Johnson's 4 Aces side - also containing Patrick Reed, Pat Perez and Taylor Gooch - have topped the team competition three times already this season

Tuesday 13 September 2022 12:55, UK

The inaugural LIV Golf Invitational Series has reached its halfway point, with the fifth of the eight scheduled events set to take place at Rich Harvest Farms in Chicago this week.

The Saudi-backed circuit has caused controversy within the golfing world since its launch this year, with the PGA Tour suspending indefinitely players who elected to compete in LIV Golf events.

Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter were among the first wave of players to join the series, consisting of 54-hole events limited to a 48-man field, with Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Champion Golfer of the Year Cameron Smith all signing since.

• PGA Tour: 'Top players' commit to 'elevated' events
• PGA Tour, DP World Tour expand and strengthen 'strategic alliance'
• Keith Pelley defends DP World Tour over 'nonsense' feeder tour claims

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Eligible LIV Golf members can currently still compete on the DP World Tour, with Poulter one of 15 golfers to travel from the LIV Golf event in Boston to play at the BMW PGA Championship last week, with fines and sanctions for joining the breakaway tour temporarily lifted until a hearing next February.

There have been no additional signings for this week's LIV Golf event, with 46 of the 48-man field returning from the Boston tournament earlier this month and the two changes being golfers who have already competed on the tour this season.

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The field is set ✅ #LIVGolf #LIVGolfChicago pic.twitter.com/j8zq0y33Gw — LIV Golf (@LIVGolfInv) September 12, 2022

Henrik Stenson returns from injury to replace Shergo Al Kurdi in Majesticks GC, while David Puig comes in for Spain's Adrian Otaegui in the roster and joins Torque GC after turning professional this week.

The story so far

The series launched in June at Centurion Club near London, with South Africa's Charl Schwartzel winning the individual event as well as being part of Stinger GC who cruised to victory in the team contest. Schwartzel's double success saw the former Masters champion pick up a total of $4.75m in prize money, including $4m for the individual prize.

Latest LIV Golf Invitational Series news

LIV golfers barred from PGA Tour return

DJ's Boston double after play-off win

Smith: No world ranking points 'unfair'

Another South African, Branden Grace, prevailed in the second tournament at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in Portland with 4 Aces GC, consisting of Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Talor Gooch and Pat Perez snaffling the team prize.

The big controversy ahead of the third tournament at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster was the decision of Henrik Stenson to switch to the Greg Norman-fronted tour, with the Swede being stripped of the Ryder Cup captaincy as a result.

Stenson's move paid instant dividends for him, though, as he earned a bumper $4m payday by winning the tournament by two strokes, with 4 Aces once again taking the team honours.

The series remained in the United States for the fourth tournament, with another six new names in the field, the most controversial of them being Open champion Cameron Smith, who had confirmed his long-rumoured switch after the Tour Championship.

Smith tied for fourth place at The International in Boston, finishing just one shot behind Johnson, and two fellow newcomers in Anirban Lahiri and Joaquin Niemann, with Johnson prevailing after the first play-off in the series. The American also added $750,000 to his $4m pay packet with another victory for 4 Aces in the team event.

The win elevated Johnson to the top of the individual standings with 94 points, ahead of Grace (77), Carlos Ortiz (48), Talor Gooch (48) and Matthew Wolff (47). The top three finishers at the end of the seven-event regular season will receive bonuses from the $30m purse, with the winner taking $18m and the runner-up earning $8m.

2022 event-by-event teams and results

Event One - June 9-11 - Centurion Golf Club, England

Individual winner - Charl Schwartzel (-7). Team winner - Stinger GC (-20)

4 Aces GC - Dustin Johnson, Shaun Norris, Oliver Bekker, Kevin Yuan

Cleeks GC - Martin Kaymer, Pablo Larrazabal, JC Ritchie, Ian Snyman

Crushers GC - Peter Uihlein, Richard Bland, Phachara Khongwatmai, Travis Smyth

Fireballs GC - Sergio Garcia, David Puig (AM), James Piot, Jediah Morgan

HY Flyers GC - Phil Mickelson, Justin Harding, Ratchanon 'TK' Chantananuwat (AM), Chase Koepka

Iron Heads GC - Kevin Na, Sadom Kaewkanjana, Hideto Tanihara, Viraj Madappa

Majesticks GC - Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Sam Horsfield, Laurie Canter

Niblicks GC - Graeme McDowell, Bernd Wiesberger, Turk Pettit, Oliver Fisher

Punch GC - Wade Ormsby, Matt Jones, Ryosuke Kinoshita, Blake Windred

Smash GC - Sihwan Kim, Scott Vincent, Jinichiro Kozuma, Itthipat Buranatanyarat

Stinger GC - Louis Oosthuizen, Hennie du Plessis, Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace

Torque GC - Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford, Adrian Otaegui, Andy Ogletree

Event Two - June 30-July 2 - Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club, Portland, USA

Individual winner - Branden Grace (-13). Team winner - 4 Aces GC (-23)

4 Aces GC - Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Talor Gooch, Pat Perez

Cleeks GC - Martin Kaymer, Scott Vincent, Ian Snyman, Turk Pettit

Crushers GC - Bryson DeChambeau, Shaun Norris, Justin Harding, Peter Uihlein

Fireballs GC - Sergio Garcia, Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Eugenio Chacarra

HY Flyers GC - Phil Mickelson, Bernd Wiesberger, Matthew Wolff, Itthipat Buranatanyarat

Iron Heads GC - Kevin Na, Sadom Kaewkanjana, Phachara Khongwatmai, Sihwan Kim

Niblicks GC - Graeme McDowell, Hudson Swafford, Travis Smyth, James Piot

Punch GC - Wade Ormsby, Matt Jones, Jediah Morgan, Blake Windred

Smash GC - Brooks Koepka, Adrian Otaegui, Richard Bland, Chase Koepka

Stinger GC - Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace, Henni du Plessis

Torque GC - Hideto Tanihara, Ryosuke Kinoshita, Yuki Inamori, Jinichiro Kozuma

Event Three - July 29-31 - Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster, USA

Individual winner - Henrik Stenson (-11). Team winner - 4 Aces GC (-25)

Cleeks GC - Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Laurie Canter, David Puig (AM)

Crushers GC - Bryson DeChambeau, Paul Casey, Charles Howell III, Shaun Norris

HY Flyers GC - Phil Mickelson, Bernd Wiesberger, Matthew Wolff, Justin Harding

Iron Heads GC - Kevin Na, Sadom Kaewkanjana, Phachara Khongwatmai, Scott Vincent

Majesticks GC - Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson, Sam Horsfield

Niblicks GC - Graeme McDowell, Hudson Swafford, James Piot, Turk Pettit

Punch GC - Wade Ormsby, Matt Jones, Travis Smyth, Jediah Morgan

Smash GC - Brooks Koepka, Jason Kokrak, Richard Bland, Chase Koepka

Event Four - September 2-4 - The Oaks Golf Course at The International, Boston, USA

Individual winner - Dustin Johnson (-15, play-off). Team winner - 4 Aces GC (-32)

Cleeks GC - Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Laurie Canter, Richard Bland

Crushers GC - Bryson DeChambeau, Paul Casey, Charles Howell III, Anirban Lahiri

HY Flyers GC - Phil Mickelson, Bernd Wiesberger, Matthew Wolff, Cameron Tringale

Majesticks GC - Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Sam Horsfield, Shergo Al Kurdi

Niblicks GC - Harold Varner III, Hudson Swafford, James Piot, Turk Pettit

Punch GC - Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman, Wade Ormsby, Matt Jones

Smash GC - Brooks Koepka, Jason Kokrak, Peter Uihlein, Chase Koepka

Stinger GC - Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace, Shaun Norris

Torque GC - Joaquin Niemann, Scott Vincent, Adrian Otaegui, Jediah Morgan

Event Five - September 16-18 - Rich Harvest Farms Golf, Chicago, USA

Torque GC - Joaquin Niemann, Scott Vincent, David Puig, Jediah Morgan

What are the future plans?

Stonehill Golf Club in Bangkok will be the venue from October 7-9 and Royal Greens Golf Club - the site of the Saudi International in recent years - hosts the following week, with the season-ending Team Championship at Trump National Doral Miami from October 27-30.

The format changes in the Team Championship, which is a seeded four-day, four-round, match play knockout tournament. The top four seeds automatically receive a bye through the first round, with the remaining eight teams playing against each other to see who reaches the quarter-finals.

LIV Golf has announced that the LIV Golf League will officially launch in 2023 with 48 players and 12 established team franchises competing in a 14-tournament schedule.

The full slate of events will be announced at a later date and is expected to expand LIV Golf's global footprint across North and Latin Americas, Asia, Australia, the Middle East and Europe.

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What is LIV Golf? Players, field, tour schedule, news for league with Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson

Everything to know about the pga tour's newest rival.

LIV Golf is now more than halfway through its inaugural season after completion of play in Chicago. Making headlines both on and off the golf course, LIV Golf has taken its battle to the courtroom, social media and beyond. While the actual play in LIV Golf has been compelling at times, the overall structure, presence and future of the organization remains its most intriguing component in the context of men's professional golf.

Plenty of questions have been answered since its inaugural event in London from June 9-11, but still more remain without a response. What will the future of this rival tour look like? How will the team aspect of the competition clash with the individual side? Will LIV Golf be able to recruit some of the best players in the world with its Official World Golf Rankings status in the air? Is a court date with the PGA Tour inevitable?

At every step along the way, answers about this league have only produced more questions and clarification has only made the future more complicated. 

The breakdown below is our attempt to share with you everything that's known to this point as we head into the whatever LIV Golf is going to look like in the future. Whether this turns out to be a fork or bump in the road of professional golf remains to be seen (only the future will retroactively determine that), but it does feel monumental in the moment.

LIV Golf, empowered by its unlimited war chest of resources to throw at the best players, is officially at odds with the PGA Tour. It's a period of time that has been promised for a long time, and is finally taking place. Let's take a look at what we know and what we can expect in the weeks, months and years ahead as LIV Golf wraps up its first season at the end of October.

What is LIV Golf?

LIV Golf is a rival golf league to the PGA Tour where the tournaments consist of 54 holes, the fields are limited to 48 golfers and the purses are an astronomical $25 million. Twelve, four-man teams will compete in each event, and the individual purses will be $20 million while the other $5 million will be divided up among the best teams each week.

Who leads LIV Golf?

LIV Golf Investments runs the league, and its CEO is two-time major champion Greg Norman. It is funded by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, which is effectively the financial arm of the Saudi Arabian government. These funds are seemingly limitless as the league has paid hundreds of millions of dollars to players just to guarantee their appearances at the LIV Golf Invitational Series events.

Who is playing for LIV Golf?

It began with Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson headlining the London event and has since grown into a respectable roster. Major champions Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed quickly followed the lead of their fellow Americans. 

More recently, and more importantly, world No. 3 and Champion Golfer of the Year Cameron Smith made the leap after the completion of the 2022 Tour Championship. He was joined by young Chilean Joaquin Niemann as two international players who chose to forgo the Presidents Cup in lieu of playing in the LIV Golf event in Boston. While the initial demographics skewed towards older players like Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Mickelson, there has been an influx of younger talent with Abraham Ancer and Harold Varner III among others.

Here's a look at the 49 men who currently play for LIV Golf and their Official World Golf Rankings (Bubba Watson is a non-playing captain and is set to compete once fully recovered from injury).

What is going on legally between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour?

Originally, 11 LIV Golf players were a part of an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. This suit also sought a temporary restraining order for Hudson Swafford, Matt Jones and Talor Gooch to participate in the 2021-22 FedEx Cup Playoffs -- which was ultimately denied and barred them from playing in the PGA Tour postseason.

Since then, slowly but surely, more and more of the original members have removed their names from the lawsuit. Previously, Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Jason Kokrak and Pat Perez left the suit. More recently, Talor Gooch, Mickelson, Poulter and Swafford followed in their footsteps. 

This leaves only three players seeking punitive damages in a legal battle with the PGA Tour: Bryson DeChambeau, Peter Uihlein and Jones. The trial is set to begin in January 2024.

The Tour has over and over again pointed back to its rules and regulations in this matter and remains set on keeping those who have played on LIV Golf off the PGA Tour. Commissioner Jay Monahan was asked at the Tour Championship if there was any chance LIV Golf members would be welcomed back onto the PGA Tour to which he blatantly answered, "no."

How has the PGA Tour reacted to LIV Golf?

After a players-only meeting at the BMW Championship led by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, sweeping changes have been made to the PGA Tour schedule and the treatment of its star players. Here are the spark notes of this new-look PGA Tour starting this season.

• Top players will commit to at least 20 PGA Tour events:  These tournaments will include the eight elevated events as previously designated, four additional elevated events with purses of at least $20 million (to be announced), The Players Championship, the four major championships and three other FedEx Cup events of players' choosing.
• The PIP will be expanded:  The PIP has been increased from the top 10 players to the top 20 for 2022 and 2023. Not only has the player pool expanded, so has the prize pool, which will now total $100 million, double the $50 million previously announced. It is from these top 20 lists that "top players" will be defined.
• Modifications  made for Lifetime Membership:  No longer will 15 seasons of membership be necessary. Once a player reaches 20 wins, he will be eligible. With this change, McIlroy has secured his lifetime membership with Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth only being a handful of wins away.

Will LIV Golf receive Official World Golf Rankings points?

LIV Golf is still awaiting the status of its OWGR application despite its best attempts to expedite the process. All 49 players recently sent a letter to the OWGR chairman requesting that world ranking points be retroactively applied to its events. Comparing the OWGR without LIV to college football without the SEC or FIFA without Belgium, it is unlikely this holds any merit. 

Meanwhile, players have begun to tee it up on the DP World Tour with some consistency on weeks in which there is no LIV Golf event. The top 50 players in the OWGR at the end of the calendar year will be invited to the 2023 Masters making it a mad dash for players to accumulate as many points as possible before then.

Will the majors allow golfers to play?

That's an even better question that has at least some clarity.  The answer in the short term is: yes . The major organizations -- PGA of America, USGA, R&A and Augusta National -- likely won't announce suspensions or bans of players who participate. There is a potential that qualifying criterias are modified in the future, however as of now if a LIV player gains entry through previous exemptions or the adequate OWGR (points which LIV has yet to secure) he should be able to compete.

What is the LIV Golf schedule?

Five events have already taken place in 2022, with three remaining. Here's a look at what's left on the schedule for the inaugural season.

• Bangkok, Thailand: Oct. 7-9
• Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: Oct. 14-16
• Miami, Florida: Oct. 27-30

LIV Golf has released a tentative schedule for 2023 with 14 stops around the globe spanning Washington D.C., Spain and Australia.  This is unofficial as details have yet to be confirmed.

• February: Florida (course TBD)
• February: California (course TBD)
• March: Tucson (Dove Mountain or the Gallery)
• April: Australia (Sydney or Queensland)
• April: Singapore (Sentosa)
• May: Washington D.C. (CBS Sports can confirm Trump National DC the week after PGA Championship)
• June: Philadelphia (course TBD)
• July: London (Centurion)
• July: Spain (Valderrama the week before The Open)
• August: New Jersey (Trump National Bedminster)
• August: West Virginia (The Greenbrier)
• September: Chicago (course TBD)
• September: Toronto or Mexico (course TBD)
• September: Florida (Trump National Doral)

What does LIV Golf's season finale look like?

It will not look like the Tour Championship, that is for certain. Taking place from Oct. 28-30, the top four teams in LIV will receive a bye on the first day while teams 5-12 will compete in match-play competitions with the higher-ranked teams selecting their opponents. For each matchup, three matches consisting of two singles matches and one alternate-shot match will take place.

The same format will be used for Day 2 of competition with the four victors from Day 1 and the four teams which received a bye all playing. From there, the four winners from Day 2 will advance to the final stage which will be different.

The four winning teams will compete in stroke play on the final day of competition. All 16 players will compete and all four scores will count towards the team's score. The lowest team score will be crowned the LIV Golf Invitational Series Team Champion.

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McIlroy & Scheffler to face DeChambeau & Koepka in TV contest

Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka are four of biggest stars in golf

• Published 4 September 2024

PGA Tour players Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler will face LIV Golf stars Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka in a televised match later this year, according to reports.

The news of the contest between four of the biggest names in the sport comes as the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) - which funds LIV - continue to discuss a merger.

Negotiations between the PGA Tour and the PIF have been taking place for over a year in an attempt to end a split in the game.

Information about the all-star match were revealed on Wednesday by Golfweek, , external which said Northern Ireland's McIlroy had confirmed the details.

"I'm thrilled to partner with Scottie in what promises to be an exciting duel against Bryson and Brooks in Vegas this December," McIlroy told Golfweek.

"This isn't just a contest between some of golf's major champions, it's an event designed to energise the fans.

"We're all here to put on a great show and contribute to a goodwill event that brings the best together again."

Reigning Masters champion Scheffler and McIlroy are ranked as the first and third best men's players in the world, while American pair DeChambeau and Koepka have won seven major titles between them.

This would be a rare and exciting opportunity for golf fans to see the big-name PGA and LIV stars go head-to-head in a targeted television event.

Meetings between all of the world's best - outside of the majors - have been rare since LIV, which has been financed to the tune of $2bn (£1.6bn) by the PIF, was formed in 2022.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has banned LIV players, many of whom are former members of the US-based tour, from competing in his circuit's events.

When asked about the participation of McIlroy and Scheffler, the PGA Tour said it was "not affiliated with that event".

BBC Sport has contacted LIV and player representatives for comment.

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Tyrrell Hatton joins Jon Rahm's team with LIV Golf after PGA Tour jump

• Senior college football writer
• Author of seven books on college football
• Graduate of the University of Georgia

Three days before its season opener in Mexico, the LIV Golf League on Tuesday announced the signing of England's Tyrrell Hatton to join Jon Rahm 's new team, Legion XIII, the first expansion franchise in the circuit's history.

Hatton, the 16th-ranked player in the Official World Golf Ranking, will join Zimbabwe's Kieran Vincent and University of Tennessee sophomore Caleb Surratt on Rahm's team. His squad will be the 13th team in a league that plays 54 holes and has shotgun starts.

"We've come a long way in a short period of time and are extremely proud of the team and brand we are building," Rahm said in a statement. "As we were developing the team's brand it became clear that I wanted to fight alongside a group of guys who aligned perfectly with what the team stands for.

"Tyrrell is a fierce competitor, proven champion, and of course my Ryder Cup teammate. Caleb is one of the brightest next gen stars of the game. And Kieran is a steady, talented ball striker who earned his promotion to LIV and is elevating his game every day."

The Telegraph of London reported Monday that Hatton received a deal worth about $60 million after LIV Golf officials made a late push for him to sign.

LIV Golf officials have been courting Hatton and other PGA Tour players for months after signing Rahm on Dec. 7. Two weeks ago, Hatton told reporters in Dubai that he was staying with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour "as of right now" after having discussions with LIV Golf.

"The introduction of Legion XIII is a testament to LIV Golf's continued growth as our league builds for the long-term," LIV Golf commissioner and CEO Greg Norman said in a statement "Jon Rahm is one of the top competitors in the world and his team will make an immediate impact on the league both on and off the golf course.

"This is another exciting moment in the natural evolution of LIV Golf and the future for the sport."

Hatton, 32, is a six-time winner on the DP World Tour and won once on the PGA Tour, at the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational. The Englishman finished second at the 2023 Players Championship, one of his seven top-10 finishes in 21 starts last season. Hatton has competed on the European team in three Ryder Cups.

Surratt, who is from Indian Trail, North Carolina, won the SEC individual championship and was named the league's freshman of the year in 2023. He is the 10th-ranked amateur in the world and was a member of last year's Walker Cup team.

Last week, LIV Golf added Poland's Adrian Meronk , a four-time winner on the DP World Tour and the circuit's player of the year in 2023. Meronk was expected to play on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour this season; he withdrew from the field ahead of last week's Farmers Insurance Open.

LIV Golf hasn't announced the addition of Meronk, who is expected to join Martin Kaymer 's Cleeks GC squad.

LIV Golf begins its third season Friday at Mayakoba Resort in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

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These liv golf players are in danger of being relegated with one regular-season event left, share this article.

With one regular-season event left in the 2024 LIV Golf League season, some players have work to do to avoid relegation.

Those in the Drop Zone, which is Nos. 49 and below in LIV Golf’s individual standings, will be relegated from the league and will head to the 2024 LIV Golf Promotions tournament to try to play their way back into a roster spot.

Captains or players with years remaining on their contract are exempt from relegation. For example, Lee Westwood, one of three captains on the Majesticks, and Martin Kaymer, the Cleeks captain, finished in last year’s Drop Zone, but due to their captaincies they both returned for 2024. This year, Bubba Watson is in the relegation zone, but due to his status as a captain, he can’t be relegated.

Also important, only 12 teams will compete in the team championship at Maridoe in Dallas, with the 13th-place team, currently Iron Heads GC, attending but not competing.

MORE : LIV Golf announces first four events of 2025, but when they’re scheduled says a lot

Here are the players at risk of losing their spots (and their current point totals) with one regular-season event left, LIV Golf Chicago at Bolingbrook.

On the bubble

Pat Perez of the 4 Aces celebrates a birdie putt on the 12th hole during day three of LIV Golf Adelaide at The Grange Golf Course on April 23, 2023 in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)

47. Harold Varner III, 8.25

48. Pat Perez, 7.76

No. 49: Scott Vincent, 5.90

Scott Vincent of Iron Heads GC walks through the tunnel to the 12th tee during the first round of LIV Golf Adelaide at the Grange Golf Club on Friday, April 26, 2024 in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by Charles Laberge/LIV Golf)

Vincent has placed in the top 25 in each of his last four starts, but he’ll need a strong effort in Chicago to avoid relegation.

No. 50: Branden Grace, 4.42

Branden Grace of Stinger GC walks during Day Two of the LIV Golf Invitational – Miami at Trump National Doral Miami on October 21, 2023 in Doral, Florida. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)

Grace has as many top-20 finishes (2) as he does finishes in the 50s (2) this year.

No. 51: Laurie Canter, 4.30

Laurie Canter of England plays a bunker shot on the fifth hole during day four of The 152nd Open championship at Royal Troon on July 21, 2024 in Troon, Scotland. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

It’s important to note, Canter is a reserve player and has played in only two events, the first two, this season.

No. 53: Kalle Samooja, 3.40

Kalle Samooja of Finland hits his shot from the eighth tee during the second round of the LIV Golf Promotions at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club on Saturday, December 09, 2023 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Montana Pritchard/LIV Golf)

Samooja was one of three players to earn a spot with LIV Golf via the 2023 Promotions event. Now, he’s in danger of having to earn his spot back.

No. 54: Kieran Vincent, 2.47

Kieran Vincent of Zimbabwe hits his shot from the third tee during the second round of the LIV Golf Promotions at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club on Saturday, December 09, 2023 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Montana Pritchard/LIV Golf)

Vincent was another player who earned his spot in the league via the 2023 Promotions Event. He has only one top-20 finish this year.

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Scheffler and DeChambeau part of PGA Tour-LIV Golf match in Las Vegas, report says

Golfweek reports there will be a made-for-TV match involving top players from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf

Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy will take on LIV Golf stars Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka in a made-for-TV match in Las Vegas, Golfweek reported Wednesday, the first time outside the majors top players from each circuit will compete against each other.

Blake Smith of Hambric Sports, who manages Scheffler and Koepka for Hambric Sports, confirmed their appearance and said both were “excited to be part of this unique event.”

Among details still to be announced were when in December the match would be held and on which course.

The foursome combined for 13 majors over the last decade. More compelling is that the match brings together players from the PGA Tour and Saudi-backed LIV Golf, which happens only at the four majors and the Olympics.

The PGA Tour is still negotiating with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia — the financial provider of LIV — as a minority investor. There is no indication a deal is close, and it would remain subject to U.S. Department of Justice review. The PGA Tour confirmed last week that anyone competing with LIV is not eligible for a tour event for one year after his last appearance.

Golfweek said the match would be televised by TNT, which previously broadcast nine editions of “The Match.” That was a series of matches that began with Tiger Woods against Phil Mickelson.

McIlroy said in a text to Golfweek the match was “designed to energize the fans.”

“We’re all here to put on a great show and contribute to a goodwill event that brings the best together again,” McIlroy said.

Once the strongest critic of LIV, McIlroy has been lobbying to bring both sides together. He is on a committee negotiating with PIF.

“I get the argument that these guys left and that was their choice and whatever,” McIlroy said, referring to DeChambeau, Koepka and others defecting to take guaranteed riches from a Saudi-backed rival league. “I just think that it’s gone on long enough. I think everyone is trying to find a solution. It’s just a solution is hard to get to.”

Golfweek cited two sources saying players will receive an appearance fee but not prize money.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

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What Is LIV Golf? It Depends Whom You Ask.

Bold new project or crass money grab? Even golf’s best players (and former President Donald Trump) disagree on the merits of the Saudi-financed golf tour.

By Alan Blinder Tariq Panja and Andrew Das

The Saudi-financed, controversy-trailed LIV Golf series has been the talk of men’s golf since its launch last year.

But what is it? Who is playing it? What’s all the hubbub, and how can you watch it ? Here’s what you need to know.

What is LIV Golf?

The series, which Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund bankrolled with at least $2 billion, has presented itself as “an opportunity to reinvigorate golf” through rich paydays, star players, team competition and slick marketing.

LIV Golf’s organizers hope to position it as a player-focused alternative to the PGA Tour, which has been the highest level of men’s pro golf for generations.

The World of LIV Golf

A guide to the entangled and far-reaching power structure of the Saudi-financed golf tour.

LIV’s critics, which include some of the world’s best players, have labeled it an unseemly money grab that is diminishing golf as a sporting test.

How much money are we talking about?

When LIV debuted in June 2022 , its tournaments were the richest in golf history, with regular-season events boasting purses of $25 million. The winner’s share at each stop was $4 million, and the last-place finisher was guaranteed $120,000. (For context, the winner of the 2022 Masters Tournament received $2.7 million, a prize bumped up to $3.24 million in 2023.)

And LIV’s prize money was on top of the appearance fees and signing guarantees accepted by individual players. Phil Mickelson, a six-time major tournament winner, is being paid a reported $200 million to take part, and Dustin Johnson , a Masters and U.S. Open champion, was said to have been tempted by an offer worth $150 million. Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed and Cameron Smith are among the players who appear to have received multimillion-dollar inducements to surrender their PGA Tour careers.

The PGA Tour has since increased the purses at some of its events , but the blend of guaranteed money and LIV prize funds has kept the young league writing the biggest checks in golf.

Who are the players?

LIV has 48-player fields, and some of the men who participate are indisputably big names in pro golf. Beyond the past major champions like Koepka, Mickelson and Smith, there are also players like Lee Westwood, formerly the world’s top-ranked golfer, the Ryder Cup stalwart Ian Poulter and Mito Pereira, who came tantalizingly close to winning a major in 2022.

The PGA Tour has retained the loyalties of other stars, though. Tiger Woods, who rebuffed a nine-figure offer from LIV, has denigrated the league's approach to competition and complained that its players “turned their back on what has allowed them to get to this position.” Rory McIlroy has been a fearsome critic , and Jon Rahm, who won the 2023 Masters , said earlier this year that he thought the PGA Tour was “making the necessary changes to adapt to the new age, and I think it’s better for everybody.”

Despite the star power of some players, many LIV golfers are probably strangers even to deeply committed golf fans. But many know the league’s commissioner: Greg Norman, the two-time major tournament winner who spent years fuming over the PGA Tour’s structure.

So, is this a vanity project for Saudi Arabia?

Not exactly. Saudi Arabia is among the resource-rich Persian Gulf states that have turned toward sports to raise their profiles, reshape their reputations and develop their economies in new ways.

Through its sovereign wealth fund, Saudi Arabia has been around the forefront of the movement. In addition to LIV, the wealth fund has acquired the Premier League club Newcastle United , and Saudi money has poured into Formula 1 racing and boxing.

But documents obtained by The New York Times show that Saudi officials know that their golf foray may have limited financial payoff. McKinsey and Co. consultants privately told the wealth fund that a golf league could be earning revenues of at least $1.4 billion a year by the end of the decade — or be losing hundreds of millions of dollars.

For its part, the wealth fund has insisted it is nothing more than an investor in LIV. In February, though, a federal judge in the United States said she had concluded that the fund was “ the moving force behind the founding, funding, oversight and operation of LIV .”

How has the Saudi initiative gone over?

Not always well. One of LIV’s biggest signings, Mickelson, provoked outrage when he praised the series as a “ once-in-a-lifetime opportunity ” even as he called Saudi Arabia’s record on human rights “ horrible ” and used an expletive to emphasize a description of the country’s leaders as “scary.” Norman made things worse soon after later when he dismissed Saudi Arabia’s murder and dismemberment of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi by saying, “ Look, we’ve all made mistakes .”

Not that pro golf’s existing power structures, including the PGA Tour, have always held the moral high ground. See: here , here , here and here .

How have the established tours responded?

The PGA Tour, which is now mired in litigation against LIV, suspended players because it requires members to request and receive releases to play in events that conflict with those on its schedule.

The punishments were not a surprise: The tour had clearly signaled that it would take action against any of its players who joined. So moments after the players hit their first LIV shots, the tour dropped the hammer.

The suspensions also applied to any PGA Tour affiliates, including the developmental Korn Ferry Tour, tours in Canada and Latin America and, notably for the older players who joined the LIV series, the PGA Tour Champions circuit for golfers 50 and older.

The DP World Tour, formerly known as the European Tour, is closely aligned with the PGA Tour, and it imposed fines and suspensions on its players who appeared at LIV events. In April, an arbitration panel in London upheld the DP World Tour’s right to punish players , a decision that will affect the European roster for this year’s Ryder Cup, which will be contested this autumn in Italy, and for years to come.

That decision did not leave American golf organizations in the clear, though. In addition to the lawsuit LIV is waging against the PGA Tour, the Justice Department is conducting an antitrust investigation into men’s professional golf. Department officials have been especially interested in whether the PGA Tour’s threats of discipline undermined the integrity of golf’s labor market and in the ties between the tour and the organizers of major tournaments.

U.S. officials have interviewed Mickelson, DeChambeau and Sergio García as a part of their inquiry. It is not clear when the investigation will conclude, much less whether the government will try to force any changes in golf.

Can LIV golfers play the majors?

The PGA Tour has long, close links to the organizers of the four major tournaments: the British Open, the Masters, the P.G.A. Championship (which is run by an organization that is distinct from the PGA Tour) and the U.S. Open. But the tournament organizers have taken no steps to ban LIV players explicitly. At the Masters, contested in April, Koepka and Mickelson tied for second place. And in May, Koepka won the P.G.A. Championship by two strokes.

There is a catch, though: The tournament organizers set the criteria for entry and have the authority to change them at any time. Also, many, though not all, exemptions that grant automatic entries are based on relatively recent performances in sanctioned events, so many LIV players could ultimately find themselves excluded from the majors.

Norman felt a version of that power last summer , when the R&A, which runs the British Open, said it had “decided not to invite him to attend” a traditional dinner of past Open champions. Augusta National Golf Club also opted not to invite Norman to attend the Masters, but that decision was less freighted since Norman never won that event.

Some of the players who have signed up for LIV, and even many who have not, believe the PGA Tour offers many golfers a raw deal. The biggest stars contend their earnings should be more commensurate with their status in the game, and they have pointed out how the best players in other sports earn far more than golfers do.

Moreover, LIV players routinely argue that they should be viewed as independent contractors and free to play whenever and wherever they choose.

In their decision in the DP World Tour case, British arbitrators said pointedly that the independent contractor argument was “overplayed.”

“Individual players have to accept some limitation on their freedoms inherent in tour membership,” the panel said. No player, the arbitrators noted, “suggested that he had given up his independence by signing up to onerous (albeit remunerative) obligations to LIV.”

How do LIV Golf events work?

LIV has set up what are essentially shorter tournaments with smaller fields — three rounds instead of four, and with only 48 players competing instead of the rosters on the PGA Tour, which can be three times as large some weeks — and featuring concurrent individual and team play events.

With the small field, there is no cut midway through the event to lop off the stragglers, and every round starts with a shotgun start, meaning players tee off from different holes on the course simultaneously and then proceed around the course’s layout from there.

The individual competition feels, in many ways, like a traditional golf event: three rounds, lowest score wins. In the team event, four-man squads effectively contest a separate competition for a separate prize pot.

How is that different from the PGA Tour?

With rare exceptions, PGA Tour events generally consist of four rounds of stroke play, in which players compete against one another to post the lowest score. And while the LIV Golf format might feel unusual for players and viewers, the ultimate goal — circle the 18-hole course in as few shots as possible — is the same.

The PGA Tour is planning to eliminate the cut at some of its events beginning in 2024, a shift that LIV has openly relished.

How many events are there?

LIV Golf organizers scheduled 14 events for 2023. The schedule includes three events at courses controlled by former President Donald J. Trump’s family — keeping the league close to one of its greatest political patrons — as well as a tournament at Real Club Valderrama, the Spanish course that hosted the Ryder Cup in 1997.

Other venues are less dazzling. When someone essentially asked Johnson ahead of the Masters this spring to compare Orange County National Golf Center, where LIV had just held a tournament, to Augusta National, he replied: “I don’t think you could have those in the same sentence, other than I played there last week and I’m playing here this week.”

How can I watch?

In LIV’s first year tournaments were shown online and on lesser-watched streaming services in much of the world. For 2023, the league signed a deal with the CW Network to broadcast its events in the United States. It is not, however, thought to be the kind of deal that has the CW paying an enormous rights fee to LIV.

The CW is not exactly known for sports programming, but CBS, NBC and ESPN (which is owned by Disney, which in turn owns ABC) have enormous contracts to show PGA Tour competitions. Those networks may have their fill of golf, but they also may be wary of angering their business partners at the PGA Tour. LIV has argued in court papers that the tour pressured broadcasters not to do business with the rebel league.

Last thing: What’s with that name?

LIV (rhymes with give) Golf chose Roman numerals for its name. If it’s been a while since you studied those in school, LIV translates to 54, which is the number of holes each player sets out to complete in each event’s three-round format. That is one fewer round than a typical PGA Tour workweek, but it pays a lot more money.

Kevin Draper contributed reporting.

Alan Blinder is a sports reporter. He has reported from more than 30 states, as well as Asia and Europe, since he joined The Times in 2013. More about Alan Blinder

Tariq Panja covers some of the darker corners of the global sports industry. He is also a co-author of “Football’s Secret Trade,” an exposé on soccer’s multibillion-dollar player trading industry. More about Tariq Panja

Andrew Das joined The Times in 2006. An assistant editor in Sports, he helps direct coverage of soccer, the Olympics and international sports. More about Andrew Das

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-live-senate-panel-examines-merger-between-pga-tour-and-saudi-backed-liv-golf

WATCH: Senate panel examines merger between PGA Tour and Saudi-backed LIV Golf

WASHINGTON (AP) — The negotiators of a business deal between the PGA Tour and the Saudi funders of LIV Golf discussed ousting LIV chief executive Greg Norman and giving Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy their own LIV teams, according to  documents obtained by Congress .

Watch the hearing in the player above.

Those were among the many proposals to unify golf’s rival factions that representatives of the PGA Tour and the Saudi government discussed this spring during their hasty negotiations. The talks culminated in a  framework agreement  announced last month between the tour and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.

Details of those talks were made public ahead of a hearing Tuesday by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which is looking into the agreement because of the geopolitical implications of Saudi investment in American sports.

“We’re here because we’re concerned about what it means for an authoritarian government to use its wealth to capture an American institution,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the subcommittee chairman.

The Saudis have agreed to invest “north of $1 billion” into a new for-profit company the tour intends to create, Ron Price, the PGA Tour’s chief operating officer, testified at the hearing.

Blumenthal repeatedly pressed Price and Jimmy Dunne, a PGA Tour board member and a key negotiator of the Saudi deal, on why the tour did not seek alternative sources of funding to compete with LIV Golf and its backer, Saudi Arabia’s $600 billion Public Investment Fund. In response, Price and Dunne said going into business with outside investors would not prevent LIV Golf and the PIF from continuing to compete with the tour and use its vast resources to sign top players.

READ MORE: What results from the Masters mean for the rivalry between Liv Golf and the PGA

“My entire concern here is to put this divisive period behind us, and for the sake of players, fans, sponsors and charities, unite the game of golf again,” Dunne said.

The deal to bring Saudi investment into the PGA Tour shocked the golf world and also has invited scrutiny from the Justice Department, which is looking into potential antitrust violations.

“There is something that stinks about this path that you’re on right now because it is a surrender, and it is all about the money, and that is the reason for the backlash that you’re seeing, Mr. Price,” Blumenthal said. “The equity ownership interest that the Saudis will have … gives them financial dominance. They control the purse strings.”

Critics of the Saudi investment in golf have pointed to the kingdom’s poor human rights record and the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which U.S. intelligence concluded was likely approved by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, an allegation the crown prince denies. The PIF has bought its way into other sports including soccer — it owns Newcastle United of the English Premier League — and Formula One racing.

Republicans on the committee, including ranking member Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, were less critical of the tour leaders for negotiating with the Saudis and expressed reservations about Congress getting involved in a private business deal that hasn’t been completed. Johnson suggested that Saudi involvement in sports ultimately could improve human rights in the kingdom.

“If the kingdom’s involvement in golf and other sports helps it to modernize or offer rights to women, wouldn’t that be a good thing?” Johnson said.

The documents released by the subcommittee also detail the roles of people on the Saudi side of the negotiations, notably Amanda Staveley, a British investment banker who helped broker the Newcastle deal and now sits on the team’s board, and Roger Devlin, a British businessman. Devlin was the first to approach Dunne about the prospect of a deal between the tour and LIV, the documents show.

READ MORE: With LIV-PGA deal, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince makes dramatic move to extend kingdom’s influence

A memo from Staveley’s firm titled “The Best of Both Worlds” includes the proposal that Woods and McIlroy take ownership of LIV teams and that each of them play in 10 LIV events per year. There is no indication in the documents that either Woods or McIlroy, both of whom remained loyal to the PGA Tour in its dispute with LIV, were ever informed of the idea.

Woods has played only twice this year and is recovering from ankle surgery to address complications from a car crash in Los Angeles in early 2021 that he has said will severely limit his playing schedule going forward.

Among the other proposals included in the memo are a mixed-gender, LIV-style team event with qualifying in Saudi Arabia and concluding in Dubai; awarding world ranking points to LIV events, including retroactively; and PIF sponsorship of two elevated PGA Tour events, including one in Saudi Arabia.

None of those proposals was included in the framework agreement that Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the PIF, and PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan signed on June 6. The agreement called for the parties to drop all lawsuits and to combine the commercial interests of the PGA Tour, LIV and the European tour into a new, for-profit company while maintaining the PGA Tour’s nonprofit status.

The proposal to replace Norman as LIV’s CEO was included in a side agreement that was negotiated ahead of the announcement but was never executed. Asked by Blumenthal whether Norman was out of a job, Price said that if the tour and the PIF complete their business deal, the tour would control LIV and Norman’s job would be eliminated.

“We would no longer have a requirement for that type of position,” Price said.

Emails obtained by the committee showed that Dunne and fellow PGA Tour board member Ed Herlihy discussed with Monahan the prospect of Dunne and Herlihy replacing Norman.

Norman remains in the CEO role, although he has been largely sidelined as the public face of LIV since the deal was announced. He was invited to testify at Tuesday’s hearing along with Al-Rumayyan; both declined. Monahan also did not testify because he is recovering from an unspecified medical situation that kept him out of work for a month; he has said he plans to return next week.

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PGA Tour and Saudi-backed LIV Golf announce surprise merger following legal battle

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LIV Golf 2025 schedule: Opening dates in Asia, Australia, Saudi Arabia released

LIV Golf has announced the first four dates for its 2025 schedule, and there's a definite international flair to the season's start. The 2025 LIV season will begin with dates in Saudi Arabia, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

LIV will debut in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's capital, with its 2025 kickoff tournament on Feb. 6-8 at Riyadh Golf Club. One week later, on Feb. 14-16, LIV will return to Adelaide, Australia, at The Grange Golf Club, site of LIV's most popular and raucous event to date, the 2024 Australia stop. Two weeks later, on March 7-9, LIV will tee off at the Hong Kong Golf Club. A week after that, LIV will travel to Singapore's Sentosa Golf Club for a tournament from March 14-16. The remainder of LIV's schedule, including domestic events, will be announced in the future.

The 2025 Masters will run from April 10-13; with many of its players qualified through prior victories, LIV Golf has structured its schedule to allow players to compete in all the majors.

The structure and timing of the announcement is a further indicator of LIV's intention to be a far more international tour than the largely American-based PGA Tour. With golf exploding in popularity around the world, particularly in Asia and the Middle East, it's a strategy designed to meet budding golf fans where they are, rather than expecting them to connect with, and tune in to, events taking place half a world away.

LIV's schedule will be a demanding one on players, particularly U.S.-based ones, given all the changes in time zones and substantial travel involved. This would be the cost of those substantial paychecks that LIV players have received, regardless of promises or plans to play less golf and spend more time with family. LIV is clearly giving off the image of an organization planning for a long-term, internationally-based future.

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, LIV Golf's financial backers, and the PGA Tour announced a merger/strategic alignment 15 months ago, but since then there's been little indication that any kind of true unification is imminent. For now, both sides are proceeding on separate tracks and separate schedules.

Several LIV players remain competitive and compelling figures even though they're not as visible as they'd been on the PGA Tour. Bryson DeChambeau is the defending U.S. Open champion, Jon Rahm was in the hunt for an Olympic gold medal until the final holes, and Brooks Koepka has a T2 and a win in majors since jumping to LIV. Still, as popular as the LIV players are, and as successful as they've been when competing against their PGA Tour opponents, it's now all but certain that the only time they'll cross paths as a group with the PGA Tour in 2025 will be at the four majors.

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Justin Rose makes feelings clear on LIV Golf players being selected for Ryder Cup

As he prepares to potentially make his seventh Ryder Cup appearance of his career in 2025, Justin Rose has discussed the prospect of LIV Golf stars taking part in the illustrious event

• 13:14, 2 Sep 2024
• Updated 15:42, 2 Sep 2024

Team Europe stalwart Justin Rose has welcomed the involvement of LIV Golf defectors taking part in the next Ryder Cup as he sets his sights on qualification for the legendary event.

Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton both played in the tournament in Rome in 2023 before making the switch to the Saudi Arabian circuit at the start of this calendar year. The pair both remain part of the DP World Tour, with fines issued to the pair if they play on breakaway tour.

However, this does mean that they can still take part in events on the European tour - leaving them open to qualifying for the Ryder Cup in the process. Alternatively, players in Rahm and Hatton's position are also eligible for selection, as it was confirmed by DP World Tour chief Guy Kinnings in April that there would be no changes in the regulations.

Now, British star Rose has spoken about the prospect of LIV stars representing Europe at Bethpage Black Course next year. He told Sky Sports : "Obviously, you want the best players representing Europe, no matter where they play. If you're European and a great player, you should have the opportunity to represent Europe.

"Most players do, the guys on LIV do get the opportunity to represent Europe. It think there is a structure in place, the European Tour has its rules and regulations, if they play in a conflicting event, they accrue a fine and if they pay the fine, they're eligible to play. So I think there is a fair pathway for everybody to be part of the team.

As for the current situation concerning the plans for a merger between the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and the DP World Tour, the one-time major victor is keeping an open mind. He admitted: "We're all kind of used to the new normal, I still don't think no one has shed any light on what the future looks like.

For all the latest on news, politics, sports, and showbiz from the USA, go to The Mirror US .

"I don't quite know how this sort of coming together (the merger) will play out, so for the moment I think everybody's making their own personal decision about what's best for them and you should go about your business. There's plenty of good golf to be played around the world .

"At the same time, we don't want to dilute the product too much because obviously we want to see great players go head to head on a Sunday evening. That's what it's all about."

Rose is also determined to qualify for Team Europe by merit ahead of the next Ryder Cup, as he admitted: "It gets exciting now obviously, you begin to turn your attentions to it as soon as the points start accruing. You think 'okay, I've got to get my skates on and make sure I'm going to be a part of that team'. I've never really worried about qualifying for the Ryder Cup.

"I mean this last time around was actually the first time I've ever been picked, so maybe I should worry about qualifying for it. What I mean by that is if I'm playing good golf as and when the Ryder Cup comes around, I feel like I could and should be part of the team but I'd definitely like to qualify on merit this time."

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