54 holes, no cut, shotgun starts, and Saudi billions. Here's everything you need to understand about the league that split professional golf.
LIV Golf is deliberately different from traditional professional golf.
Traditional majors and most PGA Tour events are 72 holes over four days. LIV plays 54 holes over three days — Thursday through Saturday. Critics say this diminishes the challenge; proponents say it's more fan-friendly and less physically punishing.
Instead of players teeing off in waves from the first tee, in a shotgun start all groups tee off simultaneously from different holes on the course. The round ends at roughly the same time for everyone — making the broadcast experience easier and creating a more festival-like atmosphere at the venue.
After 36 holes in a traditional event, the bottom half of the field is eliminated ("cut"). In LIV, everyone plays all three rounds and gets paid. This means marquee players are always on the course for fans, but also means there's less desperation in the final round.
LIV runs two parallel competitions simultaneously. Players compete for an individual title (lowest score over 54 holes), and their scores also count toward a team competition. The 12 franchise teams each have four players, and the team with the best combined score wins the team championship for that event.
LIV plays roughly 14 events across the calendar year at courses around the world — the US, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The season culminates in a team championship where the top teams from the regular season compete for the LIV Golf League title.
LIV events offer substantial prize purses — typically $25 million per event, with $4 million to the individual winner. But the bigger money is the reported guaranteed appearance fees paid to marquee players outside of prize money — figures that traditional tours have never offered.
Each team has four players, a captain, a name, and a visual identity — modeled loosely on team sports leagues.
Captain: Dustin Johnson. One of LIV's most successful teams, anchored by the former world No. 1.
Captain: Bryson DeChambeau. Built around the power-hitting US Open champion's aggressive style.
Captain: Bubba Watson. Two-time Masters champion leads this team with a creative, unconventional style.
Captain: Brooks Koepka. Five-time major winner brings a major-championship pedigree to his franchise.
Captain: Phil Mickelson. Six-time major champion and the marquee signing that gave LIV its early credibility.
Captain: Louis Oosthuizen. South African major champion leads an African-themed franchise.
A Latin America-themed team featuring several players from that region.
A Scottish-themed team with European players, including Martin Kaymer.
Korean-themed team. South Korea has been a major golf powerhouse and this franchise represents that tradition.
Mexican/Spanish-themed team, often featuring players from those regions.
Roman-themed team featuring Jon Rahm, the 2023 Masters champion who signed with LIV in late 2023.
Captain: Henrik Stenson. The former British Open champion leads a European-focused squad.
Note: Team rosters and captains evolve each season. Confirm current rosters on the LIV Golf official site.
LIV Golf is funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), the sovereign wealth fund of the Saudi government. This has made the league the center of an ongoing debate about sportswashing — the use of high-profile sports investments by governments to improve their international image and deflect attention from human rights concerns.
Saudi Arabia has faced international criticism for numerous human rights issues, including the treatment of women, LGBTQ+ individuals, political dissidents, and journalists. Human rights organizations have criticized the golf establishment for accepting Saudi money.
Many of the players who joined LIV pushed back on the sportswashing characterization. Some pointed out that the PGA Tour itself has held events in countries with controversial human rights records. Others simply acknowledged that the financial opportunity was too significant to turn down.
The debate remains live and unresolved. Saudi Arabia has also acquired stakes in sports like Formula 1 (owning the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix), Premier League soccer (Newcastle United), tennis, boxing, and more — making golf one piece of a much larger sports investment strategy.