Check in every week for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors as they break down the hottest topics in the sport, and join the conversation by tweeting us at @golf_com. This week, we discuss if LIV Golf’s offseason, St. Andrews renovations and more.
It was recently reported that Dustin Johnson re-signed with LIV Golf, and Bryson DeChambeau has also been transparent about his contract. While some of the exact contract details of other LIV stars aren’t public, what’s more important for LIV this offseason: keeping current stars, or does it need to make another Jon Rahm-like splash and sign a big name like it last did a couple of years ago?
Josh Berhow, managing editor (@Josh_Berhow): You could argue LIV is due for a big addition. Anthony Kim joined in 2024, and although he hasn’t performed well, it was a surprising and splashy name. I wonder, though, if there are any current, established PGA Tour pros who would leave at this point, like another Rahm-level guy. Part of me thinks allegiances have already been cemented, and luring a big-name guy away would be much more difficult than it sounds. Bringing back some of those key guys should probably be the priority.
Sean Zak, senior editor (@sean_zak): LIV doesn’t need another star. It needs seven more stars. The league simply does not have enough elite player firepower to gain a substantial audience. Joaquin Niemann has been great; Cam Smith has not. Bryson DeChambeau has been great; Brooks Koepka has been up and down. Sergio Garcia has been quite good; Phil Mickelson has not. As I have said for three years now, all the money in the world can buy you big names, but it cannot guarantee they play great, compelling golf.
Josh Schrock, editor (@Schrock_And_Awe): Everyone feels pretty entrenched in their respective sides now. As Zak noted, LIV needs several more stars to move the needle. I’m doubtful that those moves are out there. Their best move is to re-sign their big-name guys. If they lose one of their top guys or two, the air will really start to leave the balloon.
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One player who declined a PGA Tour invite and instead joined LIV Golf, Tom McKibbin, earned 2026 Masters and Open Championship invites when he won the Hong Kong Open on Sunday. This comes a couple of months after Augusta National and the R&A announced the winners of six national opens (Scottish, Spanish, Japan, Hong Kong, Australian and South African) would earn spots in those two majors. Still without World Ranking points, are these new exemptions good recruiting bullet points for LIV?
Berhow: They aren’t bad for recruiting, because it does offer additional chances for majors, but it’s directed at the wrong type of players. Yes, LIV can benefit from bringing in young talent, but a bunch of up-and-coming Tom McKibbins isn’t going to be what draws eyeballs. They need established stars; and those guys aren’t probably worried about these extra invites, because ideally they wouldn’t need them.
Zak: Not really. In order to gain major access through those events, you almost always have to win. As in be so good you beat everyone else in a big field. It’s definitely not much of a carrot.
Schrock: It’s better than not having any access, but it’s still so minuscule that it won’t lure the type of players they need to move the needle.
Flip-flopped Masters invite shows pro golf’s shifting priorities
When those exemptions were announced, it came with the caveat that the winners of PGA Tour Fall Series events will no longer receive Masters exemptions. Do you like the change? Or do you prefer fall-event winners earning them?
Berhow: I like this better. Have the fall focus on earning PGA Tour status. Plus, the Masters is more global than ever. This makes sense.
Zak: Doesn’t bother me that Fall Series events don’t get auto berths. I wouldn’t mind Augusta extending more invites via the year-end OWGR ranking, which is a greater representation of skill than a one-week heater in a weaker field.
Schrock: I prefer the invites go to winners of national opens instead of weaker PGA Tour fields. Golf is a global game, and the Masters has prioritized the global nature of the sport in recent years. Keep the FedEx Cup Fall about earning a card, and ask guys who want to earn a trip to Augusta National to play in the national opens.
He was ranked 500th in the world. Now, he’s headed to the Masters
The most revered links golf course in the world, St. Andrews’ Old Course, will add bunkers and be lengthened by 132 yards ahead of the 2027 Open Championship, a move R&A chief governance officer Grant Moir said is “appropriate” to “properly” adapt to the way the modern game is played.” Does adding length to a historic course like this worry you?
Berhow: I think there is something jarring about the Old Course making announcements like this. If a 60-something-year-old country club has to lengthen its course due to modern equipment, so be it, but when you hear of some of golf’s greatest cathedrals essentially saying “what we currently have ain’t it,” it gives you pause. We don’t like changing classic things — golf courses, cars, recipes, you get the picture. I’m interested to see how this looks on the property, where there isn’t a ton of room to work with. Makes you wonder if these tees will stay for future post-rollback Opens in St. Andrews.
Zak: It’s just not easy to see where the new tee boxes will be placed on certain holes. The lengthened Old Course starts to eat up space within itself. But ultimately, it’s mostly just for Open Championship week, so we won’t talk about it more than one month every five years.
Schrock: I don’t know if it worries me, but it speaks to the broader issue professional golf is facing with distance and equipment. We want to see the world’s best play meaningful tournaments on historic courses. And we want to see them play the course the way it was meant to be played. When I was at the Truist Championship at Philly Cricket Club this year, the difference in how the course was played on the first day in no conditions compared to the second round when it was raining and windy showed how these golden age courses can still present a challenge when the ball doesn’t fly for miles. We won’t talk about the Old Course changes except for one week every five years, but it speaks to the bigger problem.
