‘Lights, camera, action’, the phrase that embodies the essence of the film industry, will be very present this week in Riyadh. There, from Thursday to Saturday, the third full season of LIV Golf begins, the fourth if we include the series of events held in 2022, when the Saudi tour started to make waves, ultimately leading to a genuine shift in the world of golf.
For the first time in the history of the circuit, play will take place at night, so the floodlights at the Riyadh Golf Club will guide the players on the course. The cameras have a lot to do with this new schedule following the agreement that LIV Golf signed with FOX Sports for the live broadcast of its tournaments in the United States. And the action, with several top-level players and four Spaniards among those chosen, is guaranteed.
Riyadh will host its first LIV tournament after being the venue for the School last December. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia will for the first time be the setting for the tour’s inaugural event, after hosting editions in the first three years in Jeddah. A very special starting point for Jon Rahm, captain of the Legion XIII and player defending the individual title won in 2024, and for the Ripper GC, who triumphed in the team competition.
Sergio García, David Puig, and the new addition to the Fireballs, Luis Masaveu, will complete the quartet of members of La Armada seeking success this new year in LIV Golf. Among the great stars they will face is undoubtedly the Chilean Joaquín Niemann, returning to the Riyadh Golf Club as captain of the Torque GC after winning the International Series ranking and the PIF Saudi International on this same course in December.
Ollie Schniederjans, champion of the International Series in India last weekend, had earned a contract as a reserve player in LIV at the School. And right off the bat, he will have the opportunity to play, replacing Phil Mickelson in the HyFlyers GC while the San Diego native recovers from a shoulder injury. His name and that of Chieh-Po Lee, the first player from Chinese Taipei to play in LIV, are sure to make headlines in this new season.
For more than a dozen players, this will be their second consecutive week of competition after participating in last week’s Asian Tour event. A total of 12 participants will compete in their 37th LIV Golf tournament, having played in each and every event of the tour’s first three seasons: Richard Bland, Branden Grace, Dustin Johnson, Matt Jones, Kevin Na, Louis Oosthuizen, Ian Poulter, Charl Schwartzel, Peter Uihlein, and Lee Westwood.
The 2025 season does not bring many new features. If anything, the six players debuting on the circuit: Northern Irishman Tom McKibbin with Legion XIII of Rahm, Korean Yubin Jang with the IronHeads GC, Spaniard Masaveu with Fireballs GC of Sergio, Dane Frederik Kjettrup with the Cleeks GC, New Zealander Ben Campbell with the RangeGoats GC, and the aforementioned ‘wild card’ player Chieh-Po Lee.
McKibbin, Jang, Masaveu, and Kjettrup will debut at ages between 20 and 25, and their participation with their respective teams will be vital since, for the first time, the four cards of the four members of each team will count in all rounds for the overall team standings. Last season, only the three best rounds of each team counted in the first two rounds. This year, everything changes, making all results crucial.
Riyadh, host of this inaugural event of the 2025 season, will be one of five new venues debuting in LIV Golf this year, including Mexico City (25-27 April), Korea (2-4 May), Indianapolis (15-17 August), and the team championship in Michigan (22-24 August). Additionally, Washington DC (6-8 June) returns as a tournament host after a year of absence and on a different course.
Regarding the format of play, apart from the noted change in team standings, there are few novelties. Fifty-four players compete per tournament, divided into 13 teams of four golfers each, with two additional independent players (wild cards). Players finishing in the top 24 positions and ties in each event will earn points for the overall standings, based on their position, while teams will score similarly if they finish among the top eight. The accumulation of points throughout the year will determine the seeds in the team championship.
In the individual overall standings, positions 1st to 24th at the end will be part of the lock zone, golfers who secure their presence in 2025; those finishing between 25th and 48th will be in the open zone, open to changes; while those from 49th onwards will be in the drop zone, subject to relegation. In the team overall standings, the top three at the end go directly to the quarter-finals in the team championship, and the next 10 play a preliminary round.
The prize pool will remain at 25 million euros per tournament, 20 million for the individual overall and five for the team standings (four million for the winner of each event and three for the team that wins each tournament). And as an additional reward, the best among the top three in the individual overall as of 19 May 2025, who does not already have an exemption for the tournament, will be able to play in the US Open next June at Oakmont. A great incentive that begins to change the perspective of LIV Golf with the ‘majors’.
