Valderrama will once again host a LIV Golf tournament in 2025, news brought forward by Ten Golf. It will be the third consecutive year. In 2023, the American Talor Gooch won, and this year the victory went to the Spaniard Sergio García. The Saudi circuit has not yet made the news official, but Ten Golf can reveal that it will be confirmed in the coming days. The agreement is complete. Andalucía has outplayed Madrid on this occasion.
As you may recall, Greg Norman, the driving force behind LIV Golf, was in Madrid during the Acciona Open de España and held various meetings to explore the possibility of organising a tournament for his league in the Spanish capital. The idea was to move the venue from Andalucía to Madrid, at least for a year. These discussions involved public institutions, as well as Gerard Tsobanian, the main person responsible for Madrid Trophy Promotion, the company that promotes the Open de España.
However, to carry out this move, it was essential to first obtain the explicit permission of Valderrama, as the Sotogrande coliseum has an exclusive agreement with LIV Golf for tournaments in Spain over the next seven years. During this period, at least five tournaments must be held at the course that became one of the world’s benchmarks after the Ryder Cup of 1997.
Discussions have been ongoing since the DP World Tour tournament at the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid, but ultimately the solution was to repeat in Valderrama and postpone a possible move to Madrid. Obviously, to convince Valderrama to waive its exclusivity clause in Spain, the Andalusian club would have needed some form of compensation.
As it stands, LIV Golf will return to Valderrama in 2025. The Saudi circuit has not yet made it official, partly because Andalucía also sponsors the Estrella Damm Andalucía Masters and they are waiting for the tournament to pass to avoid overlap.
For now, LIV Golf has announced its first four tournaments of 2025. In February, it will be held in Riyadh and Adelaide, and in March there will be stops in Hong Kong and Singapore. These four venues were already on the 2024 calendar. Next week, Valderrama will be announced, and we will know if it repeats in July, as it did this year, just before the Open Championship.
With the immediate future of LIV Golf in Spain resolved, what will happen with the DP World Tour remains to be seen. As you know, it is not yet confirmed whether the Open de España will return to the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid, nor is it certain what will happen with the Estrella Damm Andalucía Masters. It is almost certain that it will not continue in Sotogrande, but we will have to see if it remains on the calendar and where it will be held.
