What is LIV Golf? Players, fields, tour schedules, tournament news with Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson

LIV Golf is now more than half way through its inaugural season after completing the course in Chicago. Gaining attention on and off the course, LIV Golf has taken its battle to courtrooms, social media and more. While the actual play at LIV Golf can be tempting at times, the overall structure, presence and future of the organization remains the most compelling component of the men’s professional golf scene.

A lot of questions have been answered since the inaugural event in London from June 9-11, but many remain unanswered. What will the future of this rivalry 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 Ranking position? Is a court date with the PGA Tour inevitable?

At each step along the way, answering this tournament only creates more questions, and clarifications only complicate the future.

The breakdown below is our attempt to share with you all we know so far as we head into what LIV Golf will look like in the future. Whether or not this is a fork or fork in the professional golf path (only the future will determine that), it’s truly epic for the moment.

LIV Golf, fueled by unlimited war resources to throw at the best players, officially takes on the PGA Tour. It’s been a long promised period, and it’s finally happening. Let’s take a look back 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 golf tournament that rivals the PGA Tour, where the tournament consists of 54 holes, the courses are limited to 48 golfers, and the payout is $25 million. Twelve or four teams will compete in each event, and the individual amount will be $20 million while the remaining $5 million will be divided among the best teams each week.

Who leads LIV Golf?

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

Who is playing for LIV Golf?

It started with Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson making headlines for the London event and has since grown into a respectable roster. Major champions Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed quickly followed in their American counterparts.

More recently, and more importantly, world number 3 golfer and champion of the year Cameron Smith took the leap after completing the 2022 Tour Championship. He was joined by young Chilean Joaquin Niemann as two internationals who chose to forgo the Pres President Cup instead of playing in the LIV Golf event in Boston. While the initial demographic skews older players like Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Mickelson, there has been a massive influx of younger talent with Abraham Ancer and Harold Varner III among others.

Below is a list of 49 men currently playing for LIV Golf and their Official World Golf Ranking (Bubba Watson is a non-competitive captain and will compete upon full recovery from injury).

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

Originally, 11 LIV Golf players were part of an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. The lawsuit also seeks a temporary ban against Hudson Swafford, Matt Jones and Talor Gooch from participating in the 2021-22 FedEx Cup Playoffs Round – which was ultimately denied and barred them from competing on the PGA Tour post-season .

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

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

The league has repeated its rules and regulations in this regard and continues to set out to keep those who have played on LIV Golf from participating in the PGA Tour. Commissioner Jay Monahan was asked at the Tour Championship if there was any chance of LIV Golf members being welcomed back to the PGA Tour to which he blatantly replied, “no.”

How did the PGA Tour react 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 treat its star players. Here are the highlights of the PGA Tour starting this season.

• The top players will commit to at least 20 PGA Tour events: These tournaments will include eight enhanced events as previously specified, four additional advanced events for at least $20 million (to be announced), Player Championship, four championships major championships and three other FedEx Cup events selected by the player.
• PIP will be extended: The PIP has been increased from the top 10 players to the top 20 for 2022 and 2023. Not only expanding the pool of players, the total prize pool will now total $100 million, double the $50 million. la was published earlier. It is from these top 20 lists that the “top players” will be determined.
• Amendments made to the Lifetime Membership: 15 seasons membership will no longer be required. When a player reaches 20 wins, he will qualify. With this change, McIlroy has secured his lifetime membership with Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth to name just a handful of wins.

Does LIV Golf receive an Official World Golf Ranking score?

LIV Golf is still awaiting the status of its OWGR application despite its best efforts to expedite the process. All 49 players recently sent a letter to the OWGR president asking for world ranking points to be applied back to its events. Compare OWGR without LIV with College football without the SEC or FIFA without Belgium, this is not likely worth it.

Meanwhile, players have started teeing off on the DP World Tour with consistency on the weeks without the LIV Golf event. The top 50 players in OWGR at the end of the calendar year will be invited to the Masters 2023 tournament, which forces players to accumulate as many points as possible before that time.

Will majors allow golfers?

It’s an even better question that has at least some clarity. The immediate answer is: yes. The major organizations – PGA of America, USGA, R&A and Augusta National – may not announce the suspension or ban players from participating. It is likely that the eligibility criteria will be revised in the future, however as of now if a LIV player has earned the right to participate through previous exemptions or the full OWGR (point at which LIV is not guaranteed) then he will be able to play.

What is the schedule of LIV Golf?

Five events took place in 2022, with three remaining. Here’s what’s left of the schedule for the inaugural season.

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

LIV Golf has announced its tentative schedule for 2023 with 14 stops globally spanning from Washington DC, Spain and Australia. This is unofficial as details are yet to be confirmed.

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

What does LIV Golf’s season finale look like?

That’s certainly not going to be the same as the Tour Championship. Taking place October 28-30, the top four teams in the LIV will bid farewell on the first day while teams 5-12 will compete against the higher ranked teams to choose their opponents. For each match, there will be three matches including two singles matches and one penalty shootout.

The same format will be used for Match Day 2 with the four winners from Day 1 and the four receiving their farewells. From there, the four Day 2 winners will advance to a different final leg.

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