The fourth season of LIV Golf begins this week, with the league’s opening event of the year coming under the lights in Riyadh.
It has been an interesting off-season for LIV Golf. There is a case to be made that LIV’s biggest signing was actually Rick Shiels, with the YouTuber signing in an ambassador role. The league signed a number of younger players who you would not consider to be household names.
But there have been further changes. LIV have announced all four scores count across all three rounds when deciding the team title at each event. Previously, there was the potential for one player to have a nightmare over the first two days and avoid bringing their team down.
The format change could certainly expose the lack of depth on certain teams. While the best-performing sides are likely to be the same ones who were around the top spots last year, it is surely going to be a lot tougher to see an upset.
One team on pole position to win LIV Golf’s Team Championship in 2025
And it appears that some think that the change massively benefits one team in particular. Speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Ryan Lavner named his overwhelming favourite for the year.
“An interesting one, at least competitively is a format change that LIV announced on Wednesday, where they are going to be counting all four scores for all three days of the competition. Previously that had just been the case in the final round,” he said.
“You certainly might see a greater disparity, there will be less hiding and more reason to have depth on your team. If you are look at Jon Rahm’s team – Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Caleb Suratt and Tom McKibbin – I mean, that should be a no brainer that Legion XIII is going to win this thing.”
Why Legion XIII’s strength in depth may count for little
Legion XIII definitely appear to have the strongest side on paper. Jon Rahm won the individual standings in 2024, while Tyrrell Hatton has arguably been playing the best golf of his career over the last 12 months. And Tom McKibbin earned a PGA Tour card on the DP World Tour before deciding to join LIV.
But being the best team throughout the season may not count for a great deal. It was third place Ripper who won the Team Championship in Dallas last year.
And clearly, all it may take is for one player’s form to desert them for the complexion of a team’s season to completely change.
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