The LIV Tour introduced a serious change to its tournaments for the 2026 season on Tuesday. The 54-hole format, a defining attribute of the tour, might be changed by tournaments performed within the conventional 72-hole format.
The LIV was launched in 2022 as a revolutionary Saudi tour, spearheaded by Greg Norman to compete with the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour. With its substantial prize cash, the tour's format additionally attracted quite a few stars, because it assured shorter tournaments with no minimize, guaranteeing extra days of play.
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Jon Rahm carded a spectacular 60 in Indianapolis to be topped LIV Tour champion for the second 12 months in a row, surpassing Joaquín Niemann and pocketing an $18 million prize.
Actually, these fifty-four holes had been what gave the tour its title ('LIV' means 'fifty-four' in Roman numerals). Nonetheless, that concept is being deserted as a result of LIV believes that evolving to seventy-two holes will permit it to take one other step ahead in its development.
"We're coming into our fourth season as a league, and the transfer to 72 holes marks a key chapter for LIV Golf and its challenges," the circuit defined in an announcement. "The world's main leagues, such because the IPL (Indian Cricket League), the EPL (Premier League), the NBA, MLB, and NFL, proceed to evolve, and we, as an rising league, all the time wish to progress in pursuit of the most effective pursuits of LIV Golf and our sport," the group acknowledged. The workforce competitors will stay, and there’s no point out of a minimize format.
"This can be a victory for the league and the gamers," Jon Rahm mentioned of the choice. "LIV Golf is a league for the gamers, and we wish to benefit from each alternative to compete. Evolving to 72 holes is the logical subsequent step," mentioned the participant from Barrika, the league's reigning champion. With this choice, the LIV goals to proceed rising in visibility, with the league itself estimating that its presence could have elevated by round 90% by 2025 in comparison with 2024 figures.
The choice made by the LIV will deliver the circuit nearer to the opposite main circuits, no less than by way of format. The rise in tournaments from three rounds to 4 will imply that, with just a few exceptions, they will even be performed from Thursday to Sunday, in step with the opposite main circuits worldwide.
This transfer will not be remoted. LIV tournaments nonetheless don’t depend in direction of the world rating, and the choice could also be pushed by the need for gamers on the circuit to see their short-term outcomes acknowledged within the rankings. Nonetheless, there are not any updates on this matter presently.
Moreover, this choice is key to the circuit's development in direction of globalization, the LIV's nice ambition, because it goals to change into a common model not tied to any particular geographic location. According to this goal, the LIV has additionally introduced that its exemptions to the Worldwide Collection sanctioned by the Asian Tour will enhance from one to 2 for 2026.
These won’t be the one merit-based pathways to the circuit. 2026 will start with the LIV Golf Promotions, from January 8-11 at Black Diamond Ranch (Lecanto, Florida), a match that, whereas performed over seventy-two holes however with a special scoring format than the standard one, will award the champion and runner-up a spot within the 2026 version of the LIV.
