LIV Golf makes its highly anticipated return to Royal Greens Golf & Country Club for LIV Golf Jeddah from October 13-15, when the league’s 2023 regular season will reach its conclusion and set the stage for the Team Championship —and the future for many LIV golfers.
The event marks the 13th tournament of the league’s first full season. Star names among the list of 13 major winners who will compete in King Addullah Economic City in Saudi Arabia include 2023 PGA Championship winner and 2023 US Ryder Cupper Brooks Koepka, 2022 Open Champion Cameron Smith, World Golf Hall of Famer Phil Mickelson, 2020 US Open Champion Bryson DeChambeau, and two-time major winners Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson and Martin Kaymer.
There will be much to play for amongst those atop the individual standings — a star-studded list competing for the season-ending Individual Title. Those further down the standings face a battle to secure their future, with those players ranked 45 and below in the standings’ ‘Drop Zone’ at season’s end facing relegation and the reality of losing their LIV Golf status for next year.
Following an exciting final round at LIV Golf Chicago — the 12th event of the season — Smith currently leads the individual standings with 170 points after victories in London and Bedminster. In-form American Talor Gooch, a three-time individual champion this season, is in hot pursuit of the Australian with 162 points. Last week’s LIV Golf Chicago champion and ‘Mr. 58’, Bryson DeChambeau, occupies the third place in the standings with 146 points. Other players in contention of a top three finishing spot include 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed, 2022 LIV Golf Invitational Jeddah winner Koepka and 4 Aces captain Johnson among others.
As the final opportunity to secure points in the individual standings, the pressure to play well in Jeddah intensifies. Those who finish in the top 24 in the overall standings will lock-in their position in the LIV Golf League for the next season. Players finishing in the “Open Zone” (positions 25-44), however, may face trade or release by their respective teams. Meanwhile, those finishing in positions 45 and below will be relegated and will automatically qualify for the League’s promotional tournament, where they will have the opportunity to earn their spot back for the 2024 season.
Aside from the individual standings race, each player in the 48-man field has good reason to make their scores count, as the final team standings following LIV Golf Jeddah will determine seeds 1-12 for the LIV Golf Team Championship in Miami the following week, with the top four teams receiving first-round byes. Through 12 events, 4 Aces — featuring Johnson, Reed, Peter Uihlein and Pat Perez — sit atop the team standings with 188 points after team victories in Adelaide and London. DeChambeau’s Crushers (178 points), who include Paul Casey, Charles Howell III and Anirban Lahiri, made significant gains thanks to their victory last week in Chicago, giving them a seven-point lead in second place over Torque. Torque feature Chilean stars Joaquin Niemann and Mito Pereira, Colombian Sebastian Muñoz, and Spanish rookie David Puig, who closely trail Crushers with 171 total points following wins in Orlando, DC, Andalucía, and Greenbrier. The all-South African Stinger, featuring major champions Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace, and Dean Burmester, sit in fourth place with 157 points. RangeGoats (155 points) occupy fifth place, thanks to five top-three finishes this season, driven by stand-out performances by Gooch, Harold Varner III, Thomas Pieters and captain Watson.
Main image: Carlos Ortiz. LIV Golf
