Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson will not be relegated from LIV this season regardless of their poor play.
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The PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs are full, however over on LIV Golf, issues are beginning to get critical with two occasions remaining. Two stars are battling for the season-long particular person title, however a number of different gamers are dealing with a sudden ouster from the upstart league through relegation.
Starting final 12 months, LIV Golf adopted relegation, a preferred side of English Premier League soccer, to create turnover amongst its ranks of gamers. What does that imply?
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On the finish of this week’s LIV Golf Chicago occasion, the ultimate particular person occasion earlier than the season-ending staff championship, gamers ranked beneath Forty eighth within the particular person standings will enter the “Drop Zone” and be relegated, or ousted from LIV for the 2025 season. These gamers will compete in a 72-hole promotion occasion for an opportunity to get again within the league.
Gamers ranked Twenty fifth-Forty eighth on the finish of their contracts will end within the “Open Zone,” changing into free brokers with no assure of incomes a brand new contract for 2025.
Nevertheless, there are a number of loopholes that provide exemptions to relegation, and several other star gamers, together with three main champions, could have to make use of these exemptions to maintain their LIV spot.
First, all 15 staff captains are exempt from relegation. That’s essential for some huge names who’ve struggled on the course this 12 months.
Six-time main champion Phil Mickelson is ranked forty fourth heading into Chicago however is secure from relegation as captain of the HyFlyers. (Simply as Majesticks co-captain Lee Westwood and Cleeks captain Martin Kaymer had been exempt a 12 months in the past.)
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Henrik Stenson, the 2016 Open champion and Majesticks co-captain, gained’t need to sweat his rating (forty first), both.
Two-time Masters winner Bubba Watson is banking on the identical exemption. His captaincy of the RangeGoats protects him from relegation even when he had been to fail to enhance his present rank of 52nd in Chicago.
One other star participant, no less than by way of consideration, will lean on a special exemption to keep away from relegation. Anthony Kim (ranked 56th out of 57 LIV gamers) joined the league as a wild card this season, and wild playing cards are additionally exempt from the boot. This implies two different wild playing cards — Hudson Swafford (fifty fifth) and Laurie Canter (51st) — are additionally secure regardless of their poor play. (Although these gamers will escape auto-relegation, LIV might, after all, decide to not renew any contracts which might be set to run out.)
The opposite present occupants of the Drop Zone — Scott Vincent, Branden Grace, Kalle Samooja and Kieran Vincent — take pleasure in no such exemptions and can be relegated if they’ll’t soar into the highest 48 with a robust displaying at LIV Golf Chicago.
