Whilst the 2025 PGA Tour season has already begun, the 2025 LIV calendar has been released and in just a few weeks the third full LIV Season will begin.
Once again the best that LIV has to offer will take their talents to locations all over the world and there will be huge anticipation to see how the PGA Tour’s main rival will grow and continue to try and steal away some of the limelight that the PGA Tour currently enjoys.
With several things to look forward to, here are some storylines to keep an eye on.
Jon Rahm will look to become LIV’s first ever multiple individual champion
If we rewind to this time last year, the game was abuzz with the news that Jon Rahm had defected from the PGA Tour to take his place in the 2024 LIV lineup.
With the news of Rahm’s defection sending shockwaves through the game, many were curious as to how one of the best players in the game would adapt and handle his new surroundings.
Those questions were immediately answered when Rahm finished third in his first start down in Mexico. Despite not finishing outside of the top ten in any event he completed, the wait for Rahm’s first title would drag on and it wouldn’t be until he teed it up at LIV’s UK event where he would win his first title.
From there he wouldn’t look back. Denied in a playoff at LIV Greenbrier, he headed to the final individual event of the season in Chicago as the number one player in the standings.
Needing to just finish ahead of rival, Joaquin Niemann, to secure the overall individual crown, Rahm signed off his season in style with his second title in just three weeks, ensuring that he would finish the year as LIV’s best player.
Looking more at home as his season progressed, Rahm will want to start 2025 quickly and will hope that he can play his way into form for the majors.
Although he recorded a top ten finish at the Open, he was largely a non-factor at all four majors in 2024 and he will desperately be trying to flip that script on its head.
With much of the game’s spotlight currently falling on the PGA trio of Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Rory McIlroy, Rahm will want to offer up a timely reminder to the golfing world of his qualities.
LIV’s supporting cast will need to step up
When looking through the list of top talent that play on the LIV Tour, it’s hard not to get excited over the top talent that are due to play against each other.
Cam Smith, Bryson DeChambeau, Joaquin Niemann, Brooks Koepka, Tyrell Hatton and Sergio Garcia would grace any golf tournament, but too many of the players that LIV need to help push the needle didn’t play their best golf last season and there will be high hopes that the form of some of those mentioned above will turn around.
Despite being one of the faces of the game and one of the most popular players in the world, Bryson DeChambeau had a quiet year on the LIV courses and although he won his second U.S Open title, he didn’t get in the LIV winners circle and he will be severely hoping that changes this season.
DeChambeau is symbolic of the changing nature of the game. Able to attract younger audiences that LIV is perfectly catered for, if LIV is to become a major force in both the golf and sporting world, DeChambeau will be a major factor. If he can play well and win, it will be great for all of those connected with the organisation.
Another man who has developed a cult-like following is Cam Smith and he is one of the major reasons as to why the LIV Adelaide events have been so popular.
Smith has a unique way of playing golf and his unconventional style and laid back approach has made him hugely popular. Despite being a three time winner, he wasn’t able to add anymore titles to his LIV resume last season and he will be hoping that win number four arrives quickly in 2025.
Last year Tyrell Hatton and Sergio Garcia emerged from the out of the pack and became two of LIV’s most consistent players.
In his first full year with LIV, Hatton finished fourth in the overall standings and was a winner in Nashville. Another man who was never far away from victory, the Englishman added a third Alfred Dunhill Championship to his impressive CV and posted three top five finishes in his last four LIV starts. He will look to be a force once again.
Sergio Garcia is part of the older wave of LIV players and is bucking the trend by competing and winning against some of LIV’s younger members.
Garcia completed a memorable victory at LIV Andalucia and by finishing third in the overall LIV standings his play didn’t go unnoticed. Europe’s all time Ryder Cup points scorer, 2025 Ryder Cup Captain Luke Donald has reached out to Garcia about him rejoining the European Tour and it’s reported that the Spaniard will do so. With hopes high of another big year, Garcia will look to perform as well as he did last year this season.
When right the LIV experience can’t be rivalled
There have been signs over the last few years that LIV is slowly starting to capture the public of the imagination. Events held in Nashville, Adelaide and the UK were well attended and the atmosphere generated at all three showed that when the crowd is up and hyped, nothing in golf comes close to matching the overall LIV experience.
Unlike the PGA Tour which is limited to mostly America, LIV is a truly global tour and in 2025 there will be stopovers in Hong Kong, Mexico, Singapore and Riyadh.
It perhaps isn’t surprising that the bulk of the 2025 calendar will be held in America where LIV’s popularity is on the rise. The judge for many sceptics of LIV is how the tournaments are perceived in places such as Singapore and Hong Kong where last season the crowds were sparse and poorly attended.
If some of these destinations see an update in attendance, LIV will move a step closer in becoming the game’s first real global tour.
Young guns will continue to shine
One of the best things about the LIV Tour is that it gives some of the game’s best young players a platform to shine.
Last year leading the charge for the young players was Joaquin Niemann. A player that the PGA Tour would dearly still love to have, Niemann was able to win two tournaments in 2024 and few would bet against him winning once more in 2025.
Hoping to follow in the shoes of Niemann will be Spanish sensation, David Puig.
Puig has raised serious eyebrows with the amount of talent he has and although still raw when it comes to competing in a professional environment, he has shown plenty of signs that 2025 could be a truly special year.
His best effort of 2024 came in Houston when he finished third, look for him to build upon and better that in 2025.
Transfers to LIV have slowed down and new captures to bolster the LIV ranks have been few and far between, but one man who has reportedly joined is Northern Irish youngster Tom McKibbin.
Billed to follow in the footsteps of compatriot Rory McIlroy, McKibbin was due to play on the PGA Tour this season but has been swayed to join Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII squad for 2025. There is plenty of hype behind McKibbin and he is one of the most highly rated players to have come out of Europe since Ludvig Aberg.
Although he has plenty to prove, look for McKibbin to show just how talented he is and for him to leave a major mark on this LIV season