The 2024 LIV Golf season comes to a conclusion this week, as the 14th and final event of the schedule is played in the Dallas area for the LIV Golf Dallas team championship.
Maridoe Golf Club hosts the $50 millon season-ending event for the first time, as the league's 13 teams and 52 team-committed players will battle it out in a three-day event that combines match play and stroke play to determine a season champion. While all 13 teams will be looking to capture their share of the enormous purse, things are going to be super awkward for five teams this week.
At the end of the LIV Golf Chicago tournament, the league's individual points race was decided. Jon Rahm won the season-long league title and the $18 million bonus that comes with it. However, at the bottom of the league standings were a handful of players who officially fell into the Drop Zone. Players ranked 49th and worse in points were subject to relegation from the league if they didn't have a contract already in hand for 2025.
All told, five players were relegated through the Drop Zone: Range Goats captain and partial owner Bubba Watson, Stinger's Branden Grace, the Iron Heads' Scott Vincent, Legion XIII's Kieran Vincent and the Cleeks' Kalle Samooja. These five players have been relegated from the league for next season -- though Watson, as a team captain, can make a "business case" to his team, that they'll surely accept, to keep him in the league.
Still, it will be awkward for Watson, just the same as the other four players, as they still have to compete with their teams in this season-ending event knowing they are in the Drop Zone. Watson will effectively be playing to prove his worth to his own team. The other four will be playing knowing it's their last shot at a guaranteed payday from LIV Golf and not knowing how many 2025 spots will be made available through the LIV Golf Promotions event, for which they're eligible.
It may turn out that one of the relegated players will be a hero for the team that wins the team competition this week. Each individual on the winning team will take home $1.4 million. Regardless of how it turns out for the relegated players, at a minimum, they'll take home $60,000 for their efforts this week.
