LIV Golf announced a significant change to its team competition format on Wednesday, with Jon Rahm and his fellow captains giving their thoughts on the move.
Jon Rahm and his LIV Golf colleagues are buzzing over a fresh twist in the league’s rules as the new season kicked off this week. On the eve of its fourth campaign, LIV made a change to its team contest framework on Wednesday.
From this season on, the strokes of all quartet members from every trio of rounds will contribute to the team tallies. In contradistinction, formerly only the uppermost trio scores from the first and second bouts were accredited, with all four coming into play during the finale round.
This team facet is pivotal to LIV’s blueprint, offering a juicy £4million ($5million) kitty at each tournament besides the whopping £16m ($20m) pot for individual ranks. The league is staking on this scoring system switch to spice up the scoreboards, aiming to rope in a legion of supporters not just for star golfers but their associated battalions too.
Reigning champion and skipper of Legion XIII, Rahm is all for the amendment, endorsing it wholeheartedly. “I like it. I think it benefits a team like ours,” he said.
“I think we have four really strong players that are really consistent. So I think it’s better for the league in general for everybody to matter every single day because Sunday is usually really, really fun. At least last year it was incredibly fun in that regard. But I think it’s better for the teams and the players’ development, as well, for every round to count. I’m very much in favour of it.”
Team member Tyrrell Hatton shared this sentiment, citing the dynamic nature of the sport: “We saw last year on Sunday how quickly the leaderboards can change. Having that from round one certainly brings a little bit more interest there earlier in the week. Like Jon said, I think we’re a pretty consistent team, and hopefully this move benefits us over the course of the year.”
Cam Smith and Joaquin Niemann welcomed the rule change ( Image: Matthew Harris/LIV Golf)
Torque captain Joaquin Niemann anticipates this adjustment will add intense pressure across the board. He remarked: “I feel like having every guy on their best form and having every shot count is going to bring the best version of every player. I think it’s going to be great. The competition level is going to get higher.”
“I think anything could happen. Even on Saturdays and Sundays, you can have four really good rounds and take advantage of it. I like the way it is set up now. I think it’s going to be better for the consistency of teams.”
Ripper Golf Club captain Cam Smith is optimistic about the changes, saying: “I’m not overly concerned, to be honest. I feel like we’ve got a really nice team. We did really well on Sundays last year, which hopefully we can take into all three rounds this year.”
“It’s probably going to bring the best out of everyone, everyone be the best versions of themselves every day. I feel like the three scores counting was nice if you have a bit of a bad round. But just digging deep and doing something extra for your mates for three rounds is something else. Yeah, I like it.”
