It may have been an honest misunderstanding, but Graeme McDowell testing positive for a banned substance and being forced to watch LIV Greenbrier from the sidelines could be very costly as he goes into the final individual event of the LIV season needing a good week to secure his playing rights for 2025.
The Portrush man is ranked 27th, with the top 24 guaranteed playing rights for 2025, and needs to pick up at least 13 points but likely more if he’s to climb inside the safety zone. For context, his seventh place finish at LIV Nashville was worth exactly that, so anything outside of that will see him come up shy.
It’s not all doom and gloom if he doesn’t, however, as he was in a similar situation last year and Smash GC captain Brooks Koepka offered G-Mac a berth in the side. McDowell’s performances have been significantly better in 2024 with three top-10 finishes, but there are no guarantees that another will be forthcoming.
While some of the golf courses on the LIV circuit are well known having hosted PGA or DP World Tour events prior to becoming LIV venues, Chicago’s Bolingbrook Golf Club is not one of them, so quite which of the 54 players’ games are best suited for the Individual Championship venue remains to be seen.
Jon Rahm enters the week as the current LIV number one and in pole position to collect the $18 million bonus which will be issued to the top ranked player after this week’s points are doled out. Only Joaquin Niemann is capable of usurping the Spaniard, and with just 2.97 points separating the two, Rahm feels certain that Niemann will bring his ‘A’ game so the equation is simple, even if the task is not.
“I’m probably going to need to win [the event],” Rahm said. “He’s going to be up there. I’m going to need another good week.”
Even a runner-up finish will see Rahm relegated to second place if Niemann is the victor, as will a third or fourth-place finish if Niemann is ahead of him. After that, as long as Niemann is no more than a place higher, Rahm will be crowned the season-long champion with Niemann settling for the $8 million for the runner up.
And there is little doubt that Rahm and Niemann have been the two standout performers of the year. Between them, they have won a quarter of the 12 events, with Niemann taking two and Rahm taking one. His LIV Houston withdrawal aside, Rahm has yet to place outside the top 10 and has broken par in 31 of his 34 rounds.
Niemann has been outside the top 10 in three of his 12 events, and has broken par in 32 of the 36 rounds.
At the other end of the table, Scott Vincent, Branden Grace, Bubba Watson, Kalle Samooja, Kieran Vincent, Hudson Swafford and Anthony Kim are all inside the relegation zone. Swafford and Kim are both wildcards who are unattached to any of the 13 teams, and as captain of the Rangegoats, Bubba is believed to be exempt from the drop. This leaves Grace, Samooja and the two Vincents each looking for a big week and to leapfrog over Mito Pereira, Harold Varner or Pat Perez who are precariously placed above the relegation zone.
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