A Warning For Young LIV Golfers

View From The Fairway by Derek Clements

When you think of LIV Golf the first thing that springs to mind is the huge financial rewards on offer to those who signed on the dotted line. 

But there have been a number of golfers for whom it has provided a cautionary tale. And this is the precise reason why individuals such as Tom McKibbin need to stop and ask themselves if they are doing the right thing. It is rumoured that McKibbin is being paid $5m to join LIV. In the grand scheme of things, is that sum really worth putting his future on the line for?

LIV have courted the world’s best players and rewarded them handsomely. They have also recruited many of the brightest prospects in golf - and it hasn’t worked out so well for them.

While we saw a whole host of first-time winners on both the PGA and DP World Tours in 2024, LIV events were generally dominated by the usual suspects. 

And all those young LIV golfers are tumbling down the world rankings as the tour is not awarded ranking points. Some are also having to face up to what the future holds when LIV discards them. This is a results-driven sport at all levels and all the more so when it comes to Saudi funding. There is no way they will continue to reward what they see as mediocrity.

Just ask Laurie Canter. He threw his lot in with LIV after being a nearly-man on the DP World Tour for a number of years. It didn’t work out for him and he was discarded. It meant his only route back was to pay his fines and rejoin the DP World Tour, and he was rewarded when he won the European Open last season.

A look through the LIV player roster reveals names such as Yubin Jang, Ben Campbell, Max Lee, Luis Masaveu, Frederik Kjettrup, Caleb Surratt, Jinichiro Kozuma. These are golfers you have probably never heard of. Had they been left to progress through the PGA, DP World and Asian Tours there is every possibility that each and every one of them may have become breakout stars in their own right. Instead, they all opted to chase the Saudi dollar. In the short term, that might be all well and good but they only have to ask Canter what is going to happen to them if they do not succeed.

Canter is not the only golfer who has had to go back to the drawing board.

Eugenio Chacarra is another and boy, has he had plenty to say on the subject.

He joined LIV in the summer of 2022 when he was poached while still an amateur, seemingly one with a bright future ahead of him. The Spaniard was second in the world amateur rankings and seemingly had the world at his feet.

Things did not go his way on the course and, two-and-a-half years later he was shown the exit door. 

In a bitter interview with Flushing It Golf, Chacarra has made it perfectly clear that he believes he was treated pretty shabbily, and it is hard to argue with him.

The 24-year-old had many gripes but chief among them was the fact that there are no world ranking points on offer and that means golfers like him have no pathway into the sport’s four majors. It would be easy to argue that they all knew this when they joined - and it continues to be a beef for many of LIV’s stars, with Jon Rahm also having a moan about it.

Chacarra said: "I see what it’s like to win on the PGA Tour and how your life changes, how you get major access and ranking points. On LIV, nothing changes, there is only money. It doesn’t matter if you finish 30th or first, only money. I’m not a guy who wants more money. What will change my life is playing in Hawaii and qualifying for the majors, qualifying for the Masters, the Ryder Cup."

If he does not want more money then it is surely only fair to ask why he joined LIV. But Chacarra insists that he was misled.

He continued: "When I joined LIV, they promised OWGR and majors. But it didn’t happen. I trusted them. I was the first young guy, then the others came after I made the decision. But OWGR and majors still hasn’t happened."

Several players have condemned Greg Norman, who has just been replaced as LIV’s chief executive, for promising something he has patently been unable to deliver. They insist that they only joined up because they had been led to believe they would receive ranking points.

Chacarra wants to play on the PGA Tour but he has been told that he must first serve a 12-month suspension. As a Spaniard, an alternative route for him might be to head to the DP World Tour but he would face financial penalties and may find that he would first have to head to the Challenge Tour, although he believes he will get some invites to play on the DP World Tour. If that happens, it will be interesting to see how he is received by his fellow players, who have had to do it the hard way.

Don’t feel too sorry for Chacarra. By his own admission, he is set for life financially. He said: "I’m thankful for everything LIV has given me. I’m 24 years old, and my life is set. I don’t know if it will work out for the best or not, but I know this is what my heart tells me is right and it works for my motivation to wake up and grind and get better, and to say I can be a PGA Tour player one day.

"I’m very thankful for what they [LIV] have done, but my mind is different now and I want to get to what I was dreaming about when I was little. Because obviously LIV didn’t exist when I was growing up. I was watching Tiger Woods winning on the PGA Tour, and I want to do that."

Chacarra was not a complete flop with LIV. He won their tournament in Bangkok in 2022 but believes he did not receive the credit he believes he deserves.

"I’m a winner and I was never treated like a winner," Chacarra said. "On the PGA Tour, Ludvig Aberg has one win, and I have one win on LIV. He has one win on the European Tour and I have one win on the International Series on the Asian Tour. So we have similar careers, but he has way more experience and plays way more big tournaments, but we have the same wins.

"We have performed similar. What tours I can play on, I have won. Same with him. But he’s the No. 6 player in the world and everyone talks about him. But on LIV, I’m the only young guy who’s won, and they never talk about me. They always talk about the same guys. I’m not blaming them, they probably know more, but they don’t really care about the young guys much."

I am sorry Eugenio but there is simply no comparison with what you and Aberg have achieved - your LIV victory came in 54-hole event with a limited field, while Aberg’s victories have come against the cream of what the PGA and DP World Tours have to offer in full-field 72-hole tournaments. He has played in the Ryder Cup and he finished second at The Masters in what was his very first appearance in a major.

The conclusion to all of this is that you should be very careful what you wish for.