The PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs are complete, but over on LIV Golf, things are starting to get serious with two events remaining. Two stars are battling for the season-long individual title, but a host of other players are facing a sudden ouster from the upstart league via relegation.

Beginning last year, LIV Golf adopted relegation, a popular aspect of English Premier League soccer, to create turnover among its ranks of players. What does that mean?

At the end of this week’s LIV Golf Chicago event, the final individual event before the season-ending team championship, players ranked below 48th in the individual standings will enter the “Drop Zone” and be relegated, or ousted from LIV for the 2025 season. Those players will compete in a 72-hole promotion event for a chance to get back in the league.

Players ranked 25th-48th at the end of their contracts will finish in the “Open Zone,” becoming free agents with no guarantee of earning a new contract for 2025.

However, there are multiple loopholes that offer exemptions to relegation, and several star players, including three major champions, may need to make use of those exemptions to keep their LIV spot.

First, all 15 team captains are exempt from relegation. That is crucial for some big names who have struggled on the course this year.

Six-time major champion Phil Mickelson is ranked 44th heading into Chicago but is safe from relegation as captain of the HyFlyers. (Just as Majesticks co-captain Lee Westwood and Cleeks captain Martin Kaymer were exempt a year ago.) 

Henrik Stenson, the 2016 Open champion and Majesticks co-captain, won’t have to sweat his ranking (41st), either.

Two-time Masters winner Bubba Watson is banking on the same exemption. His captaincy of the RangeGoats protects him from relegation even if he were to fail to improve his current rank of 52nd in Chicago.

Another star player, at least in terms of attention, will lean on a different exemption to avoid relegation. Anthony Kim (ranked 56th out of 57 LIV players) joined the league as a wild card this season, and wild cards are also exempt from the boot. This means two other wild cards — Hudson Swafford (55th) and Laurie Canter (51st) — are also safe despite their poor play. (Though these players will escape auto-relegation, LIV could, of course, opt to not renew any contracts that are set to expire.)

The other current occupants of the Drop Zone — Scott Vincent, Branden Grace, Kalle Samooja and Kieran Vincent — enjoy no such exemptions and will be relegated if they can’t jump into the top 48 with a strong showing at LIV Golf Chicago.

Kevin Cunningham

Golf.com Editor

As managing producer for GOLF.com, Cunningham edits, writes and publishes stories on GOLF.com, and manages the brand’s e-newsletters, which reach more than 1.4 million subscribers each month. A former two-time intern, he also helps keep GOLF.com humming outside the news-breaking stories and service content provided by our reporters and writers, and works with the tech team in the development of new products and innovative ways to deliver an engaging site to our audience.