By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
LIV Golf Tour held its play-in Promotion event at Black Diamond Ranch in Lecanto, Florida, with the top three finishers earning eligibility to compete in LIV Golf events in 2026.
The three top finishers—Richard T. Lee, Bjorn Hellgren, and Anthony Kim—will compete as wildcard players during the 2026 LIV Golf season.
Lee carded an 11-under-par total to capture medalist honors and the LIV Promotions Trophy. All three received a custom-designed gold coin.
Their next starts on LIV Golf will be in the 2026 season opener in Riyadh on Feb. 4-7.
While Lee and Hellgren will be making their LIV Golf debuts in Saudi Arabia, Kim will be back for his third season as a wild card player. He returned from a 12-year retirement from professional golf to join LIV Golf in 2024 but was relegated after last season as he continued to shake off the rust and rebuild his game.
Earning a spot for the 2026 season is a reflection of the significant progress he’s made in recent months.
“There were definitely low moments throughout those two years,” Kim said. “But I believe in myself more than anybody else believes in me, and I think that’s all that matters. I felt like I would earn my spot back if I did get relegated, which I did. I felt like if I just kept my foot on the gas and just kept grinding that great things were going to happen.”
Lee becomes the first Canadian to earn a spot on LIV Golf, and he did it in style, shooting rounds of 64, 66, 64 and 65 over the four days, including the first two 18-hole knockout rounds that whittled the initial field of 78 players down to the 22 competing this weekend.
“It’s not sunk in yet, to be honest,” said Lee, who suffered just two bogeys all week, one of those coming late on Sunday when he already had a spot wrapped up. “21 under on this course is absolutely amazing. I’m very pleased with my game right now.”
Hellgren opened with consecutive birdies and overcame a couple of bogeys midway through his round, finishing it off with four birdies in his final six holes to shoot a 6-under 64, matching the course record set by Lee earlier in the week.
“Starting the day, we knew what we had to do,” Hellgren said. “We had to shoot a low one today. We had to basically go all in.”
Lee and Hellgren are both looking forward to the step up in competition that LIV Golf offers with a field that includes major champions such as Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and others.