LIV Golf unveils master plan for 2023 league format, schedule

We know what 2022 will look like for LIV Golf: eight total events, seven of them individual, two already behind us, one beginning this Friday, the rest wrapping up in October. But as the rival, upstart tour continues pushing forward, the specifics of its following season are beginning to crystalize as well. 

On Wednesday LIV confirmed previous reports that it has indeed pushed ahead its schedule and will host 14 events in 2023, four more than initially planned. At first, LIV was expecting eight events in 2022, 10 in ’23 and 14 in ’24, but the timeline has been pulled forward. Fourteen events, LIV spokespeople said in June, will be the ultimate cap on the league’s schedule. 

LIV also confirmed how that league will look, player-wise. As has been reported on GOLF.com, many players who signed on with the league have done so on four-year contracts. The monetary details of some of those those contracts have been reported in the hundreds of millions. But the team aspect of the LIV series wasn’t quite as clear. 

Beginning in 2023, all 48 players in the league will be contracted to specific teams for the entirety of the season. Thus far in 2022, the teams have changed week to week. Some of the players signed on to join their friends. Others were genuinely drafted, like during the first event in London. Laurie Canter, for example, has been on a different team during each of the first three events. Next year there will be no movement of players, according to Wednesday’s press release. 

All 48 players will be stuck on their four-man teams and compete for individual and team prize money, as we’ve already seen play out this year. The events, LIV says, will not compete with major championships, international team events, or “heritage events.” That last part remains unclear but likely means the events on the PGA Tour that already draw a great amount of attention. When the 2023 schedule is finally released later this year, we’ll know more specifically. 

In addition to 2023 plans, LIV also confirmed reports of a relegation system that will incur some turnover among the poorer performing members of the league next season. As reported by SI.com, as many as four members from the league will be relegated at the end of the season, with four others joining the league through a promotion event. 

LIV Golf also sponsors an International Series of 11 events hosted on the Asian Tour, bringing its total number of events to 25 annually. According to the press release, players from the LIV Golf League are likely to compete in at least some of these events, which are the only LIV-sponsored events to currently offer world ranking points. In total, the enterprise will dish out $405 million in purse prizes in 2023. 

That is the plan as we know it on July 27. Don’t be surprised if there are further modifications in the coming months, however. These days, men’s professional golf tours are changing every week.