[PHOTO: Hector Vivas]
LIV Golf has announced its field for its second promotions event.
The competition serves as a qualifier to get into LIV Golf, albeit an extremely limited avenue. After bestowing three spots to players last year, the promotions event has a lone exemption up for grabs for 93 individuals. There is also no guarantee the winner will be employed on a team, instead being slotted in one of LIV’s “wild card” positions. The tournament begins on Thursday at Riyadh Golf Club in Saudi Arabia.
Last year’s promotions featured former PGA champion Jason Dufner, Ryder Cuppers Jeff Overton and Victor Dubuisson and tour players like Kyle Stanley, Kevin Chappell, Martin Trainer and Chris Stroud. While this week’s event doesn’t have the same amount of recognisable names, there are a few notables teeing it up, highlighted by Fred Biondi.
Biondi, 23, won the 2023 NCAA individual championship at the University of Florida, and played a full-time schedule on the Korn Ferry Tour this past season. Unfortunately for Biondi, he struggled on the minor-league circuit, missing the cut in 15 of 22 starts to finish 117th on the KFT points list. He did reach the weekend in two of four spot starts at the PGA Tour level. He enters the week 640th in the Official World Golf Ranking. Other young players include former Latin America Amateur champion Santiago de le Fuente, US Amateur semi-finalist Luis Masaveu and two-time All-American Logan McAllister.
One-time Ryder Cupper Chris Wood is in the field, as are journeymen Spencer Levin, Martin Trainer and Tom Lewis. Former PGA Tour player Ollie Schniederjans and his brother Luke will also play this week. Five former LIV players who lost their status are in the field: Hudson Swafford, Kieran Vincent, Scott Vincent, Branden Grace and Kalle Samooja. John Catlin, who served as an alternative player this year at LIV, is also at the event.
LIV Golf Promotions consists of four rounds of 18-hole strokeplay during the three days of competition:
Day 1: 64 players eligible for LIV’s Category A compete in round one on Thursday, with the top 20 and ties advancing to round two.
Day 2: In addition to the advancing players, the field will be joined by the players from Category B who automatically qualified into the second round on Friday. Scores will be reset and the top 20 players (after tiebreakers) will advance to the final day.
Day 3: Scores will again be reset for an intense full-day, 36-hole shootout on December 14. At Saturday’s conclusion, the winner will earn $US200,000 and a highly coveted spot in the 2025 LIV Golf League with the opportunity to be signed by a team. In addition, the top 10 finishers, including ties, will earn full exemption into all 2025 events on the International Series schedule, sanctioned by the Asian Tour. LIV Golf Promotions also offers a prize purse of $US1.5 million.
LIV Golf completed its third season in 2024. Talks between LIV’s financial backer – Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund – and the PGA Tour continue regarding a potential reunification of professional golf.