LIV Golf announced a big change to its tournaments on the 4th of November 2025. From next year, events on the Saudi-backed tour will be played over 72 holes as opposed to the often-mocked 54 holes they have been played over since the tour began in 2022.
Surprisingly, the origins of the LIV moniker are not well known, even to serious golf fans. However, LIV represents the Roman numerals for 54. That shows how important the format was deemed to be, but after a lot of criticism and pros and pundits from the more established tours poking fun at LIV for only playing 54 holes, the powers that be have bravely – in fairness – decided to switch.
All major tours and serious events are traditionally held over 72 holes and LIV is now in line with the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour. We do not expect a rebrand to the trickier-to-pronounce LXXII (Lshii?!) Golf though!
Why the Change?
There are a number of obvious reasons for the switch to 72 holes, and perhaps the most important is the desire for LIV events to be able to earn players world ranking points. Traditionally, LIV events have been played from Friday to Sunday, with “normal” tournaments starting a day earlier and contested over 33% more holes.
The fact that LIV players only competed over 54 holes for much of the year was thought to leave them at a disadvantage when it came to playing in the majors. Quite how much of a factor that was is hard to gauge, and we question how much and how quickly players would somehow lose the ability to remain competitive, physically or mentally, for an extra day, when they had been used to doing so for years and in some cases decades.
However, the fact that the rebel tour’s tournaments were non-standard gave the golfing authorities a very easy out when it came to the status of the tour and its prospects of earning ranking points. The established tours had long pushed against LIV events being awarded ranking points, as this was seen as a key way in which the PGA and DP World Tours could seek to keep their best players.
Major Headache
As well as the status of the world ranking system and the desire to be the number one player in the world, or to make the top 10 or even top 50, it was crucial for players in terms of gaining entry into the majors. With LIV golfers unable to earn points for much of the season, their Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) has generally slipped. Jon Rahm, for example, is currently 71st, with Bryson DeChambeau 23rd and Dustin Johnson way down in 604th.
Week 44 Ending November 2nd, 2025 – Top 20 Ranking
The full ranking can be found here –https://t.co/iXOv1VwCtX #OWGR#OfficialWorldGolfRanking pic.twitter.com/1GPHWwNV1P
— OWGR (@OWGRltd) November 3, 2025
Nobody believes these are true reflections of this trio’s ability, but they simply cannot earn enough points when they spend most of their time playing LIV Golf. By moving to 72 holes, the new LIV powerbroker, Scott O’Neil, has removed one of the major objections the OWGR authorities had against LIV being granted ranking points.
There are still further objections, chiefly the team nature of LIV and the level of guaranteed prize money. However, coming into line with the other major tours in terms of tournament duration is certainly a huge step towards LIV events being considered for ranking points.
It is a move many of the breakaway tour’s top performers have long advocated for. On a tour that prides itself on being player-focused, listening to the opinions of your stars is an obvious move. Should the tour be granted ranking points, not only can we expect to see more LIV players at the majors, but we may just see more high-profile defections, so from that point of view, it certainly looks like a wise move by O’Neill and co.