The seven big differences between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf by Jon Rahm

Jon Rahm begins his new career at LIV Golf this weekenda circuit promoted by the Saudi Public Investment Fund that has up to twelve tournaments throughout the year spread around the world and will prevent Barrika from competing in PGA Tour events.

Rahm will compete in golf’s big four, the Masters, the PGA Championship, the Open Championship and the US Open, but His daily life will be linked to this circuit, which, for several years, stood on the PGA Tour, the circuit par excellence of world golf. But what are the main differences between PGA and LIV Golf?

Three days of competition and not four

From now on, Rahm will see his weeks of competition reduced to one day of golf. As in the PGA Tour the tournaments have four days, from Thursday to Sunday, in this competition the days of competition are reduced to three, usually from Friday to Sunday, although in its first tournament in Mexico it will start on Thursday and ends on Saturday.

2

54 holes, not 72

Because there are only three days, the players do not do four laps, but three. The 72 holes played on the PGA Tour become just 54 on the LIV, so the differences can be adjusted more than in a PGA tournament. In fact, the name of the competition was chosen for that very reason, as 54 in Roman numerals is ‘LIV’.

3

There are no cuts at the end of Friday

Rahm also has to get used to the fact that the LIV Golf circuit has no cuts. In the PGA, at the end of the day on Friday, the first 65 qualified golfers go home the next day, but everyone else goes home. For its part, on this circuit everyone made it to the weekend, regardless of whether they were further behind or ahead in the standings.

4

It is played individually… and by teams

In addition to the individual competition, LIV Golf offers another competition to add spectacle, such as the team event. Along with individual results, there are 13 fixed teams of four golfers each with their own logo, name and color. In the first two rounds, the two best scores of each team are used to add them to an overall and on the third day the result of a third player is also counted to determine the winning team of each event. Also, at the end of the season there is a great event called the Teams Championship which is held only by teams.

5

There is no dress code

There are many tournaments on the PGA Tour that are very ‘purist’ when it comes to clothing. Some European tournaments allow you to wear shorts or jeans, something that is not very common, but the normal thing is that in PGA events held in the United States you have to wear long pants to play golf. However, this rule does not exist in LIV, where players can play in shorts or dress as they see fit, taking into account, above all, the hot temperature of the tournaments held in the Arabian Peninsula.

6

Shorter days: everyone leaves at once

On the American circuit, the days are relatively long in terms of schedules as each group of three players has a tee time from the tee of hole number 1, usually between five and ten minutes later than the previous group. . This changes completely in LIV, with the so-called ‘shotgun’. On each hole, from 1 to 18, a player waits for the horn to signal that it can start. At that moment, eighteen players start, a minute later the other eighteen and then the last eighteen, allowing the day to last roughly four or five hours.

7

Biggest prize

Each tournament has a purse of 25 million dollars (20 million to be distributed in the individual tournament and 5 million per team tournament). The winner of an LIV Tour tournament pockets $4 million, while members of each winning team take home $750,000. Also, the season-closing tournaments have a special purse, although the amount to be distributed in the 2024 team tournament has not yet been announced. the first classified.