LIV Golf is perhaps preparing for its most uninspiring start to a season in its brief history heading into 2025, with the league failing to make any marquee signings during the off-season.
Previously, LIV Golf has been the thorn in the side of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour at this time of the year. Of course, December 2023 saw Jon Rahm decide to make the jump, before he managed to convince Tyrrell Hatton to join him.
This off-season has seen LIV focus some of their attention on signing younger players. Certainly, there has been no notable losses to the PGA Tour. Perhaps no players were interested in making the move, but it also hints that LIV have realised that they need to make more of their own superstars.
The league is still fighting for credibility. Rahm said this week that it is wrong in his mind that LIV Golf events still miss out on world ranking points. However, there is never likely to be a breakthrough in that aspect while their tournaments are played over 54 holes.
LIV Golf players starting to accept promise over world ranking points will be broken
Meanwhile, one of LIV’s biggest selling points has been the idea of relegation. Previously, captains were exempt from relegation, but that changed in 2024.
However, not only did the only captain who did finish in the drop zone keep his place, but there was also a reprieve for Branden Grace at Stinger.
It arguably undermines the league massively. And speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Rex Hoggard suggested that there is a sense that LIV is trying to have its cake and eat it too.
“I actually had a long conversation with a player that’s on LIV Golf yesterday about these topics. One, the world golf ranking, we talked a little bit about the idea that they were promised a bill of rights, and a lot of the players are starting to come around to the idea that it’s not going to happen. Of course, that was Greg Norman who assured everyone you’ll get into the majors with your world ranking points. Well, you stuck your head in the sand. You were sold this bill of rights and you chose to believe it because you were getting a big check alongside it, that’s kind of on you,” he said.
“The flip side of this, and this was a LIV player that told me this, that if you look at the way the relegation worked last year going into this year, essentially just one person earned his card at the Promotions event, just because of the way it all worked out. They didn’t even deliver on the slither of meritocracy that they promised. I think the original idea was four players would play their way in, four players would play their way out. That didn’t happen, and it wasn’t even a captain.
“I understand why Bubba Watson‘s team felt like Bubba needs to stay, even though he’s not playing well. He is a draw, you want him in these events. I love Branden Grace. He’s been one of my favourite players on the PGA Tour for a long time. He’s not a draw for that team, and he played poorly last year. He was injured to be fair, but it’s not as though he earned his card through the Promotions event. They just brought him back. They just shrugged. ‘No, we’re going to go and keep him’. So if you’re not even going to deliver on the one thing, the little tiny slither of the promises that you made, I don’t know where the expectations are to think that, ‘yes, we still deserve world ranking points’.”
LIV Golf now has a major problem for the latter stages of the 2025 season
Ultimately, LIV now has a huge problem which will become apparent later in the season. One of the reasons LIV Golf Chicago was mildly exciting in 2024 was the fact that players were apparently fighting to save their careers and get themselves out of the relegation places.
However, LIV now has absolutely no right to pitch the final individual event of 2025 as any sort of relegation decider. Clearly, team captains can overrule the relegation places to keep their friends in the league.
Perhaps it is because they have given up the fight for world ranking points that LIV feel more comfortable closing the shop a little more. But it is certainly rich for Rahm to act as the players on that stage have somehow been hard done by.
And it is hard to imagine that many will have any sort of sympathy.
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