By Kevin Rademeyer, Sports Journalist.
LIV Golf is only a few weeks away from landing on our shores for the first time. In a new twist LIV Golf is preparing to abandon one of its founding principles, a move that has exposed clear divisions among its biggest stars as the league enters a pivotal phase of its evolution.
The circuit, whose name is derived from the Roman numeral for 54, will switch from its signature three round format to traditional 72 hole tournaments from the 2026 season onwards. The change, confirmed late last year, is part of a broader restructuring aimed at securing Official World Golf Ranking points and aligning more closely with the sport’s established tours.
The decision came into sharper focus when Tyrrell Hatton offered an unusually candid insight during a press conference at the Abu Dhabi Championship. While welcoming the move to four rounds, the Englishman revealed that the idea had initially been deeply unpopular among players.
“At the end of my first season, there was a questionnaire that was filled out,” said Hatton, who joined LIV at the start of 2024. “One of the questions was about moving to 72 holes, and of everyone who filled it out, I think there were only three guys, initially, who had said yes about moving.”
Since then, LIV has paired the format change with other reforms, including increased relegation places and more merit based pathways, all designed to strengthen its case for world ranking recognition.
LIV chief executive Scott O’Neil has framed the shift as part of a natural growth process. “The most successful leagues around the world, IPL, EPL, NBA, MLB, NFL, continue to innovate and evolve their product, and as an emerging league, we are no different,” he said.
A year on, however, player opinion remains far from settled.
Speaking at a recent LIV event in West Palm Beach, several players expressed indifference rather than enthusiasm. Sergio Garcia was relaxed about the move. “I’ve played 72 holes my whole life, so it doesn’t bother me at all,” he said. “The more holes you play, the cream usually rises to the top.”
Lee Westwood described the decision as broadly positive. “It ticks a lot of boxes, world rankings, things like that,” he said. “I’ve always felt a long time between turning up on a Monday at tournaments and teeing off on Friday as well, having played 72 hole tournaments for 30 odd years.”
Others see the change as a significant step forward. Jon Rahm, LIV’s most expensive signing and a long time advocate of four round events, called it “absolutely massive”.
“When I joined, it was very, very early on and it was a rough product,” Rahm said. “If you go tournament per tournament, compared to the big tours where they have 40 plus events a year, we’ve had three seasons of 14 and one of eight. Basically a season and a half in compared to the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour. So take it like that, they’re making a lot of strides.”
For Graeme McDowell, the shift suits his playing style. “The strategy of the 54 holes doesn’t really suit who I am,” he said. “I’m a little bit more consistency, grinding, the mentality of the 72 hole marathon style. One round less sounds like it should be nothing, but it’s an unbelievable shift in the mentality of 54 versus 72.”
“It’s 14 more days competitive golf this year, which adds two more weeks, but the pros outweigh the cons for me. It’s a more traditional, more accepted format within the game. It’s like the PGA Tours morphing into us and we’re morphing into the PGA Tour. They’ve got all these elevated events with limited fields and guaranteed money, and we’re starting to play 72 holes now. The alignment of the world is good for everybody.”
Dean Burmester echoed that view. “It’s a good idea in terms of prep for the majors, and going forward into bigger events,” he said. “Its exciting from a tournament perspective, because you don’t have to be as quick out the blocks. Three rounds felt like a sprint.”
Yet some of LIV’s most influential figures remain unconvinced. Bryson DeChambeau, arguably the league’s biggest star, initially backed the change when it was announced, saying: “By moving to 72 holes, LIV Golf is taking a proactive step to align with the historic format recognized globally.”
Privately, however, his enthusiasm has cooled. “It’s definitely changed away from what we had initially been told it was going to be,” DeChambeau said. “So there is some movement that we’ve all been, I would say, interested in, and going, ‘why that movement?’ Because we were told it was going to be this.
“I’ve got a contract for this year, and we’ll go through it there and see what happens after that. Look, it’s 72 holes, it’s changed, but we’re still excited to play professionally and play for what we’re doing and go across the world. Is it what we ultimately signed up for? No. So I think we’re supposed to be different, so I’m a little indifferent to it right now. “Hopefully it weighs positively on me over the course of time, but you never know. I’m not sure. We didn’t sign up to play for 72.”
His Crushers GC teammate Paul Casey was blunt. “Same as Bryson,” he said. “What’s the USP if we move away from it? It wouldn’t have been the thing I would have changed. I would have maybe gone tee times rather than shotgun start or something else would have changed.”
Louis Oosthuizen, captain of the Stinger GC, also lamented the loss of what made LIV distinctive. “I’m a big fan of the 54 holes,” he said. “To me it was a bit more unique, and I felt a lot more fresh in the tournaments and ready to play. We do a lot of traveling, which will make it a little bit more difficult to play 72 hole events.”
As LIV begins its fifth season in Riyadh this week, the move away from its original identity has added another layer of intrigue to a league still defining what it wants to be. While it was never going to please everyone, the decision to mirror the traditional tours has created a fresh and potentially defining subplot in LIV Golf’s ongoing story.