LIV Golf explained: Format, captains, teams and team names
LIV Golf will operate a little differently than other golf tours, featuring team captains, weekly drafts and unique formats.
Here’s what you need to know about the format:
LIV Golf Format
The LIV Golf Invitational Series will feature both individual and team competitions, all occurring simultaneously.
There will be seven regular-season events, followed by a team championship in October where teams will compete against each other in match play to determine who wins the LIV Golf team trophy.
On the individual side, it will be a straight-forward 54-hole stroke-play event with no cut. Each round has a shotgun start.
Regarding the group aspect, each event will have 12 teams consisting of four players on each team, and each team will have a captain. As there will be different players in each LIV Golf event, the teams will change from tournament to tournament, with the captains at each event selecting the other three members of their team in a snake draft. The captains will also select the lineup each week and each team will have a logo, a team name and team colors.
During the first two rounds of each tournament, teams will take only the top two scores from their players, with three scores being used on the third and final day.
The overall purse for the London event is $25 million, with $20 million being dispensed to individuals and an additional $5 million among the top 3 teams. The individual winner will receive $4 million. The winning team will split $3 million.
The team championship at the end of the season will be a four-day, four-round match-play bracket with a purse of $50 million.
Here are the teams for the first LIV Golf event:
- Dustin Johnson – 4 Aces; Shaun Norris, Oliver Bekker, Kevin Yuan
- Graeme McDowell – Niblicks; Bernd Wiesberger, Turk Petit, Oliver Fisher
- Ian Poulter – Majesticks; Lee Westwood, Sam Horsfield, Laurie Canter
- Kevin Na – Iron Heads; Sadom Kaewkanjana, Hideto Tanihara, Viraj Madappa
- Louis Oosthuizen – Stinger; Henni Du Plessis, Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace
- Martin Kaymer – Cleeks; Pablo Larrazabal, JC Ritchie, Ian Snyman
- Peter Uihlein – Crushers; Richard Bland, Phachara Khongwatmai, Travis Smyth
- Phil Mickelson – Hy Flyers; Justin Harding, Ratchanon Chantananuwat, Chase Koepka
- Sergio Garcia – Fire Balls; David Puig, James Piot, Jediah Morgan
- Sihwan Kim – Smash; Scott Vincent, Jinichiro Kozuma, Itthipat Buranatanyarat
- Talor Gooch – Torque; Hudson Swafford, Adrian Otaegui, Andy Ogletree
- Wade Ormsby – Punch; Matt Jones, Ryosuke Kinoshita, Blake Windred