LIV simply dialed again its Q Faculty. This is what that might imply

LIV Golf simply introduced the small print for the second version of its “Promotions” occasion. One change stands proud: there’s just one spot out there for LIV’s 2025 season, in comparison with three final yr.

The three-day, four-round match will go off at Riyadh Golf Membership in Saudi Arabia and culminate in a 36-hole finale on Saturday, Dec. 14, when a qualifer shall be topped. The remainder of the highest 10 will earn full exemptions to the Worldwide Sequence, the LIV-backed section of the Asian Tour. The sector may even be competing for a $1.5 million purse, with $200,000 going to the winner.

Relegated LIV execs can compete for the spot, as can those that completed exterior the highest 24 this season and due to this fact don’t have spots assured for 2025.

So why the change? And what does this imply for LIV? Listed here are 5 takeaways buried within the league’s launch. (Full particulars on the backside.)

1. Yr 1 of the Promotions experiment didn’t actually work.

Final yr’s qualifying occasion was a couple-day shootout which lent itself to excessive drama but additionally excessive variance; there was no assure that the gamers who acquired by way of would thrive in year-long LIV competitors. They usually didn’t. Kalle Samooja, Kieran Vincent and Jinichiro Kozuma earned final yr’s spots; Samooja and Vincent completed exterior the highest 48 and had been relegated, whereas Kozuma completed forty fifth and thus has no assure to be re-signed for 2025.

So if the aim was so as to add elite expertise and bolster the power of LIV’s fields, that didn’t work. High targets for LIV are unlikely to place themselves by way of such an unsure take a look at as this occasion; somebody like Tyrrell Hatton was a splashy free agent and acquired a big-time signing bonus when he joined LIV however wouldn’t have competed in Promotions.

2. LIV’s staff construction nonetheless has kinks to work out.

How do LIV gamers find yourself on groups within the offseason? It’s free company … principally. However when gamers are assured spots on LIV however particular captains haven’t sought out these particular gamers, that’s the place issues get bizarre. Jon Rahm’s staff Legion XIII was assigned Vincent final yr, as an example, however he’d in all probability favor to have the liberty to signal whoever he needs. That’s an ongoing pressure. An nameless LIV govt informed SI that “the power for the league to impose gamers on groups is one thing we wish to transfer on from.” That checks out.

3. LIV’s chase for OWGR factors is historic historical past.

One of many preliminary drivers behind the creation of the Promotions occasion was to appease the Official World Golf Rating, which had taken subject with the truth that LIV was a comparatively closed store. This stripped-down entry to the league serves as a reminder that LIV has deserted any quest for OWGR factors, opting as a substitute to undermine the earlier system, particularly as its gamers’ rankings proceed to drop.

As a substitute the league is, for the second consecutive yr, leaning on rating startup TUGR to assist decide eligibility for its Promotions discipline.

4. Free company is the imaginative and prescient.

If the aim was to get extra confirmed gamers from inside its system, there’s a world the place LIV might have taken some spots from Promotions and changed these with year-long qualifiers from the affiliated Worldwide Sequence, the LIV-sponsored section of the Asian Tour. However it didn’t try this; as a substitute there’s nonetheless only one spot out there to the Worldwide Sequence’ season-long champion — a spot presently held by American John Catlin. (Final yr’s Worldwide Sequence exemptee, Andy Ogletree, completed No. 34 in LIV’s 2024 standings as a part of Phil Mickelson’s HyFlyers.)

Meaning solely two golfers will want properties, and Catlin can be a welcome addition to loads of rosters; that must be straightforward. The Promotions winner? That relies upon who will get by way of…

Basically, although, LIV would like to let its captains select their gamers. They’ve decided that might be finest for enterprise, particularly for a league that has the last word aim of promoting its franchises. (Captains of the vast majority of the 13 franchises personal a 25% stake of their groups, whereas LIV owns the opposite 75%.) That very same nameless LIV exec informed SI that they “need the groups to have the autonomy to mature and create their very own business worth.” Meaning the liberty to poach gamers from any tour, wherever.

5. LIV stays desperate to make Saudi golf occur.

Final yr’s Promotions occasion was in Abu Dhabi; this yr it’s headed to Saudi Arabia, to Riyadh Golf Membership. That’s no shocker, given LIV’s Saudi backing. However it’s a reminder {that a} central part of LIV’s imaginative and prescient contains the expansion of Saudi Arabia as a cultural hub — and ultimately a golf vacation spot.

LIV may even kick off its 2025 season in Riyadh in February.

What does all the above imply for the way forward for professional golf at massive? Principally it’s a reminder that, ongoing negotiations or not, LIV is urgent on with its enterprise and making ready for a full 2025 season.

You could find full Promotions particulars beneath.

LIV GOLF PROMOTIONS

When: Dec. 12-14, 2024

The place: Riyadh Golf Membership, Saudi Arabia

Format: 4 rounds of 18-hole stroke play, however with a pair twists. Those that end within the high 20 and ties from spherical one (on Dec. 12) will advance to Friday’s second spherical. Then scores will reset and different exempt gamers shall be added. The highest 20 gamers following spherical two will advance to Saturday, the place scores reset once more. Saturday brings a 36-hole shootout for the exempt spot in LIV, whereas the highest 10 earn Worldwide Sequence exemptions.

Who’s eligible: There are completely different ranges of exemption, as follows.

Class A:  Qualifiers for Spherical 1 

Class B:  Exemptions into Spherical 2
The next gamers are exempt from Spherical 1 and are mechanically eligible to take part in Spherical 2:

Dylan Dethier

Golf.com Editor

Dylan Dethier is a senior author for GOLF Journal/GOLF.com. The Williamstown, Mass. native joined GOLF in 2017 after two years scuffling on the mini-tours. Dethier is a graduate of Williams Faculty, the place he majored in English, and he’s the creator of 18 in America, which particulars the yr he spent as an 18-year-old dwelling from his automotive and taking part in a spherical of golf in each state.