While the PGA Tour is still in full swing with the Fall Series, LIV Golf is, naturally, experiencing a slowdown, at least in terms of competition.
The 2025 season concluded in August, with the individual ranking finals held in Indianapolis and the Team Championship (an event held in Michigan) following.
The first Invitational of 2026 will be held in Riyadh in February, and so, like every year, the Saudi League has no competitions scheduled from September to the end of January, except for LIV Golf Promotions, the qualifying tournament that guarantees a spot among the fifty-four players for next season.
In this regard, the teams are in the process of contracting free agents, meaning players ranked 25th to 48th in the individual rankings, the so-called drop zone. At least five teams (Cleeks, Iron Heads, Majesticks, HyFlyers, and Torque) are having to reshuffle the cards to define their franchises.
But the competitive pause doesn't mean LIV Golf will go into hibernation this fall.
On the contrary.
Liv, news
The arrival of new CEO Sott O'Neil has kicked off the development of LIV Golf 2.0, which begins with the recruitment of a new generation of managers, a review of existing positions (such as the new OWGR accreditation request), including relationships with the PGA Tour, and ultimately, player relations.
And it is precisely in this last area that the first and most important innovation arrives.
According to Flushing It, LIV Golf has informed all players who have signed new contracts that starting next season, in addition to the LIV calendar events, they will be required to participate in at least two International Series tournaments.
The increasingly close collaboration with the Asian Tour led in 2022 to the creation of a series of tournaments that, thanks to LIV Golf's support, will be considered the Asian Tour's Elevated Events, generating a separate ranking, the winner of which will secure a ticket to the following LIV season.
This decision has two important implications.
The first is the message sent externally: that the Saudis, pending the OWGR's decision, intend to decisively focus on developing the Asian Tour as a channel for securing world ranking points for their players.
The second is the message addressed to the latter: that they must be prepared for contractual revisions.
One of the benefits of the LIV contract that early LIV golfers cited was that it reduced their schedules compared to when they were members of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.
