LIV shaken up by news dumps over break
Koepka's departure and an increase to 57 players make for extended drama to start 2026
Brooks Koepka cites family reasons for his LIV departure (Ross Parker/SNS Group via Getty Images)
LIV Golf played its most recent event four months ago, so it only makes sense — in a perverse sort of way — that it would make some significant news during the holidays when the rest of the golf world all but shuts down.
Brooks Koepka is leaving and the league is expanding to 57 players.
Those developments — on the heels of already expanding to a 72-hole format — are fairly significant. The Koepka announcement dropped late in the day on Dec. 23, meaning it was into the evening in Europe and already Christmas Eve in Asia and Australia when word came out.
While the idea of a “news dump” is far less pliable in the internet age, the dropping of that relative bombshell at that time surely had to be timed for when it would get the least amount of attention.
LIV Golf said the separation was amicable and Koepka, through his representatives, suggested he needed to spend some time with his family. All of that is possible and perhaps even likely.
But it doesn’t take away from the blow this is to LIV Golf. While it doesn’t suggest that any kind of max exodus is afoot — Koepka never seemed fully on board with the entire LIV concept from the start — the league is losing a marquee player who helped establish its rebel presence in 2022 when it launched with a couple of handfuls of major winners including Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia.
A year later, Koepka won his fifth major championship, capturing the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill where DeChambeau finished fourth. The victory came a month after a final-round letdown at the Masters, where Koepka let Jon Rahm overtake him while LIV placed four players in the top seven. Rahm, at the end of the year, would join LIV Golf, too.
That major title along with DeChambeau’s at the 2024 U.S. Open were a boost for LIV, a selling point. Now half of the league’s players who won majors while active LIV members are gone.
What’s next for Koepka is to be determined. He’s not eligible to play the PGA Tour until he reapplies for membership and is approved. His PGA Championship win gives him a full exemption for three more years, but there is that tricky matter of having to deal with some sort of punishment from the PGA Tour for leaving it and playing on the rival circuit.
There’s been considerable misinformation concerning the idea that he faces a one-year ban, which has only been applied to those who competed in LIV events who were not members. A former member with status will be treated differently, and the punishment could be wide ranging and vary by player.
Koepka, given his marquee value, might be coming back sooner than many believe. But that depends on Koepka.
Perhaps he’s in no hurry. He can compete in all the majors. He can rejoin or accept select sponsor exemptions on the DP World Tour — where he began his career and collected his first professional win. Koepka was never into the small stuff anyway, so finding a few major tune-up events to tee it up in might be his play in 2026.
Meanwhile, LIV Golf has holes to fill. Talor Gooch will now captain Koepka’s Smash team and a new player needs to fill the four-man team roster. There are other team openings as well.
But those team spots won’t be filled by the two leading International Series qualifiers and players emerging from next week’s LIV Promotions Event, which is increasing the number of players who will earn LIV status at Black Diamond Ranch in Florida from one to three.
LIV announced just before the end of the year that those five new players will be wildcard players for the year. That means no team affiliation.
And it also means increasing the field size form 54 players to 57, which might sound odd but isn’t when you realize that 19 threesomes can fit comfortably into LIV’s shotgun format.
The increased access for new players is viewed as a way to appease the Official World Golf Ranking, which has been reviewing LIV Golf’s latest application. Whether the league has created enough pathways to satisfy the mandate to comply with other tours sanctioned around the world is one of the big issues to be resolved sometime early in the year.
“Since the end of June, the Governing Board has endeavored to thoroughly evaluate the LIV Golf application,” said Trevor Immelman, the chairman of the OWGR board, in a statement released on Dec. 30. “We remain committed to the OWGR’s mission, which requires honoring the meritocracy woven into the professional game. As such, discussions have been regular and remain ongoing. To be clear, progress has been made, but there is no decision to share at this time. We will continue to work closely with LIV Golf as it continues to evolve to ensure its application is handled with fairness, integrity and consistency, as stated previously.”
That understandably wasn’t satisfying to LIV backers, who wonder what is taking the OWGR so long. The OWGR counter is we’re into a new year, we’ve just been told how many players will be competing and a full LIV schedule for 2026 has yet to be announced.
The LIV drama will undoubtedly play out over the course of 2026. DeChambeau is in the throes of negotiating a new deal, and Koepka’s departure gives him the ultimate leverage. LIV is still putting the pressure on some players to make the jump from the legacy tours and join them. So far only Victor Perez and Laurie Canter have made the leap for 2026.
Something has to give by the first event next month in Riyadh.