LIV Golf’s New Season Is Almost Here, but One Key Piece Remains Unknown

LIV Golf is set to kick off its fifth season but with one major unresolved item, Bob Harig writes. Also: McIlroy backs an Open return to Muirfield, and Brooks Koepka returns to the PGA Tour.

Bryson DeChambeau and the rest of LIV Golf continue waiting to hear about an application for world ranking points. | Melissa Tamez/Imagn Images

With its season set to begin in a little more than a week, the LIV Golf League anxiously awaits word on its Official World Golf Ranking fate, hoping that good news will be forthcoming before its first of 13 individual events in 2026.

There is no guarantee, however, that there will be any news, although given the nature of the decision and the public comments to date, it seems unlikely that the OWGR would let the first of the month pass and say ... nothing.

It felt the need to issue comment on LIV Golf earlier this month when it announced tweaks to its ranking system, so it would make sense to give an update, whether it is yes, no or undecided.

And both LIV CEO Scott O’Neil and OWGR chairman Trevor Immelman have said enough publicly to suggest they’ve been working through this issue since LIV reapplied for accreditation last summer. It would seem there’s been plenty of time to decide if LIV is deserving, if more needs to be done, or if there might even be a points reduction while other aspects are addressed over the coming  year.

Unless you are strongly biased on one side or the other, there does not seem to be a simple answer to the question.

There are some steps LIV has taken to strengthen its bid. Among them:

> Expanding its field to 57.

> Expanding from one player to two the number who earn a spot in the league via the International Series on the Asian Tour.

> Expanding the qualifying spots onto the league via the Promotions event from two players to three, meaning there will be a total of five wildcard players in addition to 52 who represent 13 teams.

> Going from 54-hole events to 72 holes.

> Implementing a hard relegation system that saw the players outside last season’s top 48 lose their spots in the league, with O’Neil suggesting—yet not officially announcing—that the relegation zone will be widened this year, with suggestions coming in the range of 12 players.

But there are also some areas that could still be problematic for the OWGR:

> LIV has not addressed field variance. Perhaps it is not necessary, but the same 57 players from tournament to tournament is not ideal due to field rating issues within OWGR.

> Although this is not new, another flaw was highlighted last week when Japan’s Jinichiro Kozuma disclosed that he found out he was not being retained despite not being relegated by his former Iron Heads team, which was being remade into an all-Korean squad after Ben An signed with LIV.

Jinichiro Kozuma was not retained by his retooled LIV Golf team despite finishing ahead of other players who did keep their spots. | Melissa Tamez-Imagn Images

The top 24 are automatically retained, but LIV’s “open zone” from 25 to 48 allows for a player to be replaced. The problem? Kozuma finished 32nd in points and is being booted for a hand-picked player despite finishing ahead of others who are not losing their spot. Three others, including Matt Jones, faced the same fate.

This has always been possible in LIV’s team structure, but as it relates to OWGR, it is not viewed as a positive.

And not helping is Luis Masaveu, who played nine individual events—one more than Kozuma—apparently under a half-season contract that saw him leave the league at midseason. He was replaced by Jose Ballester.

Masaveu finished 52nd in points but was still brought back to play for Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs team.

How Trevor Immelman factors into the process

Immelman spoke with reporters on the LIV issue last month at the PNC Championship and explained that he is serving like a “point guard” for the OWGR board as he does not have a vote but has sought to learn about LIV’s bid and facilitate communication.

“When you look at the OWGR and how it’s made up with 25-plus eligible tours around the world, thousands of golfers that are ranked around the world, it’s about meritocracy,” he said that day. “That’s one of the beauties of our sport and the beauty of the professional game is earning your way onto a tour, fighting to keep your job on that tour. So it’s really been more along those lines of working with them on understanding their league from that standpoint: meritocracy, promotion and relegation and the self-selection aspect of how their league is made up.”

Those words can be viewed however you want to see them. They are not necessarily positive nor negative toward LIV’s acceptance.

The 2008 Masters champion who now works for CBS, Immelman has been the subject of immense online badgering over his role in this process, mostly because he is on PGA Tour broadcasts and thus viewed by LIV supporters as in conflict.

That misses the fact that nobody since LIV Golf began has done more to attempt to bridge the gap. Immelman has had a constant dialogue with O’Neil since taking on the role last April. And it wasn’t Immelman—but rather LIV Golf—that elected to waste nearly two years without reapplying for accreditation.

“Man, the conversations I get tagged into on this app are WILD!” he wrote last week on X, referring to the OWGR discussion.

Trevor Immelman has been in regular contact with LIV Golf CEO Scott O'Neil about the league's OWGR bid. | Peter Casey-Imagn Images

Immelman said in December that the seven-member board could make a decision in time for LIV’s season but he didn’t guarantee it. And there’s no reason why it couldn’t go ahead at some point during the season.

Ultimately, the decision appears to come down to the four majors. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and DP World Tour CEO Guy Kinnings are joined by reps from the four majors (including the CEOs of the USGA, R&A and PGA of America) and Nick Dastey, who represents all of the other tours, including the Asian Tour, with which LIV Golf has a relationship.

Monahan, as he did in 2023, should recuse himself from the discussion. So should Kinnings. Their actions have suggested they don’t want LIV to get accredited, so why allow for an appearance of conflict?

The majors don’t have that conflict. Both the U.S. Open and British Open have allowed small pathways for LIV players into their championships in keeping with how they deal with other smaller tours. The PGA Championship has invited numerous LIV players. Although the Masters has not cited LIV Golf in doing so, it did invite Joaquin Niemann each of the past two years.

It’s in the majors’ best interest to have the small number of LIV players who would qualify via OWGR through LIV Golf.

And so here we are. Is a decision coming?

As O’Neil said two weeks ago about Immelman:

“I’ve said publicly 100 times but I’ll just repeat it. I think he has the toughest job in the world,” O’Neil said. “Think about his board. As a CEO for a long time, I’ve had different boards, and they all come with their own complexities. His is made up of the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the four majors, and there’s some people on that board that don’t have a lot to gain by us getting world ranking points.

“Trevor has the complexity of where the rankings are today, where some of the greatest golfers in the world are on that ranking system, and they happen to play in LIV. We are trying to lean in—we are all trying to lean in as quickly as we can and as far as we can, while keeping the integrity of the league, to make sure we’re doing everything possible to make the decision easy and quick.”

Rory backs British Open return to Muirfield

Unlike the USGA and the PGA of America, the R&A has not locked in its major championship venues well into the future. U.S. Open and PGA Championship sites are selected into the next decade. The British Open? Only through the championship next year at St. Andrews.

So where will it go?

Trump Turnberry is possibly in the mix, despite all the issues that come with that and which the previous R&A administration under Martin Slumbers said it wished to avoid.

Turnberry last hosted the championship in 2009 when Stewart Cink defeated Tom Watson in a playoff. Of the 10 venues in the rotation, it has gone the longest without hosting. The issues with the venue preceded Trump and still do. It has hosted the tournament just four times, mostly due to its remote location and the corresponding lack of revenue.

Royal Lytham & St Anne’s last hosted in 2012 when Ernie Els won his second Claret Jug and Muirfield last hosted in 2013 when Phil Mickelson rallied to win his fifth major championship.

Since then, Royal Liverpool (2014, 2023), the Old Course at St. Andrews (2015, 2022, 2027), Royal Troon (2016, 2024), Royal Birkdale (2017, 2026), Carnoustie (2018), Royal Portrush (2019, 2025) and Royal St George’s have all staged the tournament.

Lytham’s property footprint has been a concern and Muirfield’s lack of attendance coupled with membership issues that were resolved in 2017 have brought a pause to the venue that many believe is the best of them all.

Rory McIlroy said Muirfield deserves to host another British Open. | Mike Frey-Imagn Images

Rory McIlroy, who missed the cut at Muirfield in 2013 and then won the following year at Royal Liverpool, has backed a return to the 16-time host in East Lothian, Scotland, where Mickelson joined the likes of Els, Nick Faldo, Tom Watson, Lee Trevino and Jack Nicklaus on its list of past champions.

“It would be wonderful if it was,” McIlroy told reporters at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. “I’m not privy to those conversations, but Muirfield deserves to be back on the Open rota.

“They rectified the issues they had. It’s a wonderful course. It’s one of the best courses on the rota and in the U.K. As well, it has to commercially make sense. I think (R&A CEO) Mark Darbon has been brought in to make the Open Championship commercially viable. I would say Muirfield, that area, North Berwick, that would probably be one of the more commercially viable opens.”

It is unclear if the club has done all that is necessary to appease the R&A, which lamented the poor attendance 13 years ago as well as some congestion issues on the course. It’s also a challenge that the Scottish Open, contracted through 2030, is played virtually next door at the Renaissance Club the week prior—which could change in 2028 due to the Olympic Games, which are pushing the Open into early August.

There is also the matter of the R&A seriously considering a move outside of the U.K. for the first time in its history, with an event at Royal Portmarnock in Dublin, Ireland.

“We love the golf course at Muirfield,” Darbon said last summer at the Open when it was played at Royal Portrush. “We’re in a discussion with the venue right now. There’s some things that we need to evolve at Muirfield, the practice ground in particular is a challenge for us with a modern Open and there’s some work we need to do with the venue to facilitate some of the infrastructure that we require, some cabling to enable the scale of the production that we have these days. But it’s a good dialogue and we’d love to be back there in the future.”

It is believed the R&A wants a Scottish venue in 2028 due to daylight issues with the event being pushed back a few weeks. It will be too soon for Troon and St Andrews. That leaves Turnberry, Muirfield and Carnoustie—which could also be in the mix.

It was thought that the 2028 venue would be announced by the end of the year, which makes the looming decision all the more interesting.

How the field at Torrey Pines will be adjusted for Brooks Koepka

One of the overlooked aspects of Brooks Koepka’s return to the PGA Tour is how it is likely to benefit a player or two each time he tees it up who otherwise might not have gotten into the field.

The high-profile stipulations saw Koepka get fined $5 million, not be allowed to earn player equity for five years, and be prohibited from earning any FedEx bonus money this year.

But no PGA Tour members will be bumped out due to his return to the Tour. Koepka is being added to existing fields.

Brooks Koepka will make his PGA Tour return this week. | Aaron Doster-Imagn Images

This week’s Farmers Insurance Open has a 144-player field. Koepka makes it 145. But because the Tour wants to make sure there are threesomes throughout the event, it will add two players on Monday off the alternate list at that time.

Next week at the WM Phoenix Open, the field is 120 players and that same rule will apply. Koepka will be added and two more players off the reserve list will bring the field to 123 players.