LIV Golf is heading into unprecedented territory ahead of its fourth season starting next month, with the league sending so many shockwaves through the sport since its formation.
There have certainly been a number of occasions where LIV Golf has threatened to turn the golfing landscape upside down. And, unfortunately for its detractors, it does appear that LIV is going to have a role in deciding the future of the game.
They have signed a number of the world’s biggest names, with Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau amongst those to make the jump in 2022. Meanwhile, signing Jon Rahm ahead of the 2024 season appeared to have the potential to completely move the needle.
Heading into 2025 however, there have been no marquee signings. And it seems that LIV is now having to deal with criticism from those who spent a lot of time inside the league.
Of course, LIV would have known that it was inevitable that one of their players would eventually prefer to move elsewhere. While there are huge riches on LIV, the PGA Tour has the history and the prestige that LIV is not going to build up anytime soon – regardless of how good their product is.
LIV Golf accused of lying to players about world ranking points
Laurie Canter came incredibly close to earning a PGA Tour card for 2025 through the DP World Tour. But plenty of eyes will now be on Eugenio Chacarra. The Spaniard was let go by Fireballs after 2024, and he has since hit out at LIV.
In an interview with Flushing It, Chacarra noted that LIV players were promised that ranking points would be secured. He also noted how LIV’s biggest selling point was the money, while his goal was to make the PGA Tour and play in the majors and build a legacy there.
Speaking on Golf Channel, Eamon Lynch suggested that he had a little sympathy for Chacarra because LIV have seemingly sold a dream that did not exist.
“It’s evidence that decisions have consequences and Chacarra’s finding out that the decision he made back in the summer of 2022 has consequences. He’s going to pay those consequences. The people around him, the people who encouraged him to make those decisions aren’t actually going to face the consequences. They’ve gotten their percentage. They’ve gone at this point,” he said.
“It was interesting. He echoed what Carlos Ortiz said on the Gravy & The Sleeve podcast in February of last year. He said he too was promised official world golf ranking points for joining LIV. They lied to these guys. It’s an outright lie, because it wasn’t within their gift to give official world golf ranking points.
“Perhaps Greg Norman thought that he could bully the world ranking system into giving them points or he’d have a critical mass of players who would allow them to strong-arm the world golf rankings to say, well you have to give world ranking points to a Dustin Johnson, or a Brooks Koepka or a Bryson DeChambeau. But they didn’t. And eventually, they said, ‘we’re not going to comply with the criteria, so we’re withdrawing the application’. So they’ve marooned these guys out there on an island. And that’s why Eugenio Chacarra finds himself playing in an Asian Tour event in India that’s coming up in a couple of weeks, because that’s literally the only place he has status left.”
How Eugenio Chacarra compares with Ludvig Aberg
Chacarra made note of the plaudits Ludvig Aberg has received during his professional career. Aberg has enjoyed a meteoric rise. He made his Ryder Cup debut before he had played in a major, while that major bow saw him finish second at the Masters.
He has won once on the PGA Tour and once on the DP World Tour. And Chacarra suggested that he was struck by the buzz surrounding Aberg compared with the lack of attention paid to him.
But Lynch went on to suggest that there is a key reason why Chacarra and Aberg are not spoken about in similar terms.
“I talked to a player yesterday who has played with Chacarra and Ludvig, who said Ludvig is 200 times the player Chacarra is,” he said.
“Now how much of that owes to the development, or lack thereof, of Chacarra in the last couple of years, and Chacarra, in his defence, has had some injuries over the last couple of years. He did win his fifth start in LIV. He’s had two top 10s in all of the starts he’s made since then. So the idea that’s he comparable in any way to Ludvig Aberg’s career trajectory is nonsense.”
It is hard not to feel that Chacarra has taken this route because he has been let go by Fireballs and not been signed by another team. However, in his defence, he has potentially only realised the scale of the challenge ahead of him now that he has left LIV.
The good news is if he has anything like the talent of Aberg, he will be able to bounce back and get this latest chapter of his career properly up and running in the next few years.
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