Just when I was beginning to take LIV Golf seriously…
The world class players, members winning major championships, younger players coming through, the promotions event, the International Series pathway.
What a load of cobblers.
It’s the January transfer window for football fans which means it is peak silly season and if you are a golf fan, you can expect a double helping of nonsense.
The winter offseason has made a complete mockery of the promotion and relegation system at LIV Golf.
Despite finishing in the “Drop Zone” and being relegated last year, Branden Grace has been handed a lifeline by Stinger GC and will retain his place for the 2025 LIV Golf League.
Bubba Watson has also been re-signed by the Rangegoats meaning half of the relegated players from the 2024 campaign will be retained for this season.
The automatic promotion and relegation concept is a complete and utter nonsense. Not one player has been automatically promoted through the supposed LIV Golf pathway.
The team selection process might as well be made fully autonomous because as Roy Keane used to say, it’s “jobs for the boys.”
If the team element was a serious concept wouldn’t Smash GC have binned off Graeme McDowell? Who somehow made $9 million despite enduring another underwhelming season on the Saudi breakaway tour.
Last week former Irish Open champion John Catlin revealed he will remain a reserve on LIV Golf for the second straight season after somehow missing out on earning a lucrative contract.
The American coasted to the Asian Tour Order of Merit title last year after two victories while he also made six stand in appearances on LIV Golf as a reserve.
But after failing to win the Asian Tour’s International Series that he had led for most of the season, Catlin was pipped to the post by Joaquin Niemann after the points were heavily skewed towards the Saudi PIF International finale in Riyadh last month as Niemann claimed the title and also clinched the season-long crown.
Catlin’s second chance of earning a lucrative contract was scuppered by Max Lee at LIV Promotions but after holding several talks with the breakaway tour, the 34-year-old confirmed that he will be a reserve once again this season.
“I will be a reserve on the @livgolf_league again for 2025,” he wrote. “Excited to compete on the@asiantourgolf and @intseriesgolf to earn my spot on LIV Golf for 2026.”
Catlin also proved more than an able deputy during his six starts on LIV Golf.
Catlin filled in for the injured Charles Howell III on Crushers GC during four tournaments and his best finish was a T7 at LIV Golf Nashville. In those four events, Crushers GC finished T4, T2, T2 and solo third.
At LIV Golf Greenbrier, Catlin stepped in for Graeme McDowell of Smash GC and played a key role in the team’s victory.
Catlin concluded the season filling in for Legion XIII Captain Jon Rahm at the Team Championship in Dallas. Catlin shot 2-under 70 on the final day (the second-lowest score of the team’s four players) to help Legion XIII to a fourth-place finish.
Does Catlin deserve a spot on the LIV Golf League? Perhaps not since he didn’t win the International Series but he was a starter in six of the fourteen events so plenty of golf fans feel he has earned his stripes.
Catlin’s Asian Tour rival and fellow reserve Ben Campbell was offered a late lifeline to join the league in 2025 as he penned a one-year deal with the Range Goats.
But the fact that players who are way past their best and have finished in the so called relegation spots have been recalled to their teams is a slap in the face for Catlin and anyone who thought LIV Golf had some merits.
Catlin has outperformed all of the relegated players and even those who finished above the drop zone, but he has been denied a lucrative deal that would be life changing money.
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