The LIV Golf Offseason Rollercoaster Continues

While the offseason, thus far, hasn’t been filled with landscape altering signings, the formation of new teams, or an agreement with other tours, there have been some pivotal changes that are going to shape what LIV Golf looks like going forward.

A lot has happened, so let’s take this time to go over everything that’s happened in the past couple of weeks, and I’ll share some thoughts on what I think the plans are going forward, and how that might help shape the landscape going forward.

For next season, LIV Golf will be increasing their field from 54 players to 57 players. This comes with the addition of 3 new “Wild Card” spots. These are players that aren’t part of any team’s roster, but are eligible for individual points and can play their way into the Lock Zone. Prior to 2026 there were just two Wild Card spots and they featured the same players throughout the season. Now there will be five spots total, four of which are going to be the same throughout the season. The fifth will be filled through various methods on a per-event basis. These could be local qualifiers, reserve players, or players exempt through other tours.

My thoughts on this change are pretty mixed. While I think it’s good that more players are able to earn their way into the league, as two these spots are being awarded to the International Series Order of Merit leaders Scott Vincent and Yosuke Asaji and two will be awarded at the LIV Golf Promotions Event, there was also a very easy opportunity to develop this into a Wild Card Team and get some really cool stories from that. From what I’ve been told, it doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen. Though with how things are changing recently, it could still be a possibility. One can hope.

The format on LIV Golf breaks the individual standings into three categories. The Lock Zone, Open Zone, and Drop Zone. Players that finish in the lock zone, or the top 24 of the standings, are guaranteed a spot on LIV Golf for the following season. On the opposite end of the rankings, everybody that finishes outside of the top 48 are relegated out of the league. Between those two zones is the Open Zone, where players are considered “Free Agents”. They are eligible to return to their teams, or sign with other teams, but there’s no guarantees for these players.

Next season, both the Lock Zone and Drop Zone will be expanding. Though the exact amount of spots haven’t been confirmed just yet, sources have indicated that it’s likely the Lock Zone will be expanding by 10 players, and the Drop Zone will include all players finishing below 45th. While this change in a bubble might sound like it’s not all that significant, when coupled with the league increasing the size by three players, the result will be drastic. It’s doubling the players that are subject to relegation. Before 2026 it was the bottom six players, now it will be the bottom 12 players.

This change becomes even more complicated when you think about how these 12 gaps are going to be filled for the following season. Captain’s have made it clear over the past couple of seasons, they want to recruit and have discretion on who fills out their rosters. They accept that relegation is a part of the league, and new players are going to be coming in through various methods, but they aren’t interested in having those players automatically assigned to their rosters. This means that a minimum of 8 (assuming all 4 season-long wild cards are in the Drop Zone) team spots will be vacant and need to be filled. Are there 8 players that, every season, are willing to make the jump to LIV and join a team? Sure, but this will change who these players might be. It seems with these changes, and the ongoing suspension from the PGA Tour for playing in LIV Golf events, that these spots will need to be filled by young players just turning professional, or players from the Asian Tour.

It’s going to complicate an already challenging recruitment process, which is why I believe LIV Golf would not make this change without other things coming in the pipeline. Something like this must be done with a bolstering of the downstream talent pool that these spots can be filled from. That might look like further investment in the Asian Tour, a partnership with the DP World Tour, or some lessening of fines and suspensions from the PGA Tour. Only time will tell.

In recent interview that could only have occurred as a result of poor advisement from those around him, LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil sat down with Josh Carpenter of Sports Business Journal. When he was asked if Brooks Koepka, captain of Smash GC was going to be playing on LIV Golf in 2026, he answered:

A bit of a political non-answer in there, but Carpenter added that he’s heard from “at least four golf sources” that despite being under contract, he may not play in the 2026 season.

This one’s a little bit foggy because any real thoughts here have to assume that Scott wasn’t going to rattle off that answer in response to any individual contract discussions. “He is signed for 2026” could be his way of answering the question while also saying that he’s not going to get into any detail about player contracts, or it could be a carefully phrased way to dodge the question. I suspect it’s the former but acknowledge there’s a chance it could be the latter.

For the sake of it being a much more fun topic to discuss, let’s assume it’s the former and Brooks may not play in 2026. There’s an entire unknown here with the captaincy and equity stuff, and figuring out what would happen for this season. If captaincy decisions are based around performance in the league, Gooch is a no-brainer. Already a member of Smash GC and seems to play at a really high level on LIV, but I’m not sure he’s a great brand ambassador. Both at the league and team level. If he starts turning up to Open and US Open qualifying, making a real effort to get out there and compete in the biggest events, then I’d be all in on him.

As for Brooks not being a part of LIV anymore? I’m not sure it matters that much. I stood 20 feet away and watched him publicly bully Matt Wolff, and basically have been out on Brooks ever since. His killer mentality on the course is captivating, but his persona off the course isn’t anything I have any interest in following. Him leaving also doesn’t really make a ton of sense to me. He’s never cared about non-majors, so I don’t really expect him to care about LIV events, but looking back at why he joined LIV, him leaving now doesn’t add up. He’s mentioned that he didn’t know what the future of his golf game was like, and didn’t know if he’d be able to continue competing at the highest level.

When he joined LIV in 2022, he had fallen outside of the top 50 on DataGolf. Now he’s outside of the top 150. There were some injury issues before and surely that played into his original decision, but if the level of play that saw him drop out of the top 50 had him questioning his ability to compete on the PGA Tour, I can’t imagine that his play that’s seen him drop outside of the top 150 has him ready to go back. Maybe he thinks the LIV format is somehow to blame for that drop in performance and he thinks returning to the tour will fix it. If that’s the case, I think he’ll be in for a rude awakening should he decide to take a year off and then return to the PGA Tour.

Overall, I suspect we’ll see him back on LIV in 2026, but if he’s really itching to get back out on tour and play in a different series of events he doesn’t seem to care about, sitting this year out would allow him to come back one season earlier. If he plays on LIV Golf in 2026, he’ll be suspended through the 2027 PGA Tour season, whereas if he sits out 2026, he would likely be able to return for the 2027 season.