LIV Golf rosters starting to take shape with less than a month until season opener

Posted by Admin January 9, 2025 Golf

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Ahead of the fourth season for the LIV Golf League, its franchise’s rosters are starting to take shape.

The league unveiled its complete 2025 schedule Tuesday, and that was the tip of the iceberg of what has been a busy new week on the LIV Golf front in terms of signings, or alleged ones.

Tom McKibbin, a Northern Irishman who was one of 10 players to earn a PGA Tour card via the DP World Tour in 2024, wouldn’t comment on a Golf Digest Middle East report that he had signed with Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII.

“I’m not gonna make any comments this week out of respect for Justin (Rose) and Luke (Donald) and this tournament,” McKibbin said. “It’s a team event, so I’m just trying to give my best to the team and see how many points I can get.”

McKibbin is playing in the DP World Tour’s Team Cup this week, and he was even paired with Legion XIII’s Tyrrell Hatton during practice rounds and is paired with him for Friday’s fourball session.

If McKibbin were to join Legion XIII, he would replace the relegated Kieran Vincent and add to one of LIV Golf’s strongest rosters with Rahm, Hatton and Caleb Surratt, who was a sophomore last year at Tennessee before signing with LIV Golf ahead of 2024.

Bubba Watson and Branden Grace, two of the players who were relegated after 2024, have re-signed with their respective squads. Watson is the captain of RangeGoats GC, which also signed Ben Campbell this week. Grace is a member of Stinger GC.

Grace competed in the LIV Golf Promotions event to try and win his card back, but the lone spot up for grabs went to Max Lee.

Frederik Kjettrup, a former Florida State golfer who spent time last year on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Americas, signed with the Cleeks. Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC re-signed Jason Kokrak and Graeme McDowell, returning its same roster from 2024.

One of the surprises of the LIV Golf offseason, however, is that John Catlin won’t be on a roster to begin the 2025 season. Catlin won the Asian Tour order of merit, was the tour’s Player of the Year and broke the single-season money mark on the tour. Many thought he would be elevated through the International Series, which is a set of 10 elevated events that form an Asian Tour-sanctioned pathway to LIV Golf. However, that didn’t happen. He finished fourth in the standings, one spot behind Campbell.

Two of the five relegated players will be back in the league in 2025, and as of now, there are only four confirmed new players in LIV Golf for 2025: Lee, Kjettrup, Campbell and Yubin Jang, who signed with Iron Heads GC after finishing 2024 as the Korean Tour Player of the Year. McKibbin would make five new faces for the league, if he has in fact signed.

McKibbin is ranked No. 110 in the Official World Golf Ranking, but after back-to-back offseasons of LIV signing some top talent from the PGA Tour, this season is a bit different.

LIV Golf’s 2025 campaign kicks off Feb. 6-8 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.