When a series of PGA Tour stars and recent major winners from Brooks Koepka to Bryson DeChambeau to Cameron Smith, signed for the rival league LIV Golf, the collective question emerged regarding how playing in the new league might affect their preparations for the game’s four biggest events moving forward. Would LIV’s shotgun starts and 54-hole tournaments, plus a lighter, 14-event schedule, send its higher-ranked players to the majors with the match fitness required to compete at the highest level?
The results for a handful of LIV stars have been solid since the league debuted in the summer of 2022. Technically speaking, Smith was still a PGA Tour player when he won the Open Championship at St Andrews that July, but within two months he had signed with LIV, giving them a first glance at a victory. A year later, Koepka’s 2023 PGA Championship win was LIV’s first official major triumph, with DeChambeau following suit at the 2024 US Open. There was also Phil Mickelson and Koepka finishing T-2 to Jon Rahm (who was not yet on LIV) at the 2023 Masters, as well as DeChambeau missing a playoff by one shot to Xander Schauffele at last year’s PGA Championship at Valhalla.
There will be 12 LIV golfers in the field at the 2025 Masters, with the other three majors still rounding out their fields. During last week’s LIV Golf Miami event, we asked several of league members whether anything has changed in their run-up to major season, beginning with the league’s winningest major champion under the age of 50, Koepka.
“My prep is still the same; doesn’t matter what I do,” Koepka said. “My prep started a month ago. Nobody is changing their prep; we’ve still got a lot of time to practice.”
Mind you, Koepka did play in eight events while still on the PGA Tour ahead of the 2022 Masters. This year, he’s got five starts to his credit as he makes his way to Augusta after a T-18 finish in Miami, 10 shots back of winner Marc Leishman. Even so, he was insistent things were no different as he prepped for his 10th career Masters start. “We still play a lot when we’re at home,” Koepka said.
Digging deeper about what is different, a variety of LIV players said a spread of contrasting courses, as well as shorter, more intense tournaments and extra time to practice at home were three developments that stood out.
As it relates to the courses, Smith, who would typically play between five and seven tournaments before Augusta when he was on the PGA Tour, said the variety of different grasses, conditions and styles of courses kept him on his toes. In the past, the big pre-Masters tests for Smith were Riviera Country Club at the Genesis Invitational, Bay Hill for the Arnold Palmer Invitational when he included it in his schedule, and TPC Sawgrass, where he won the 2022 Players Championship. Now, the water-laden layouts at Sentosa GC (LIV Singapore) and Doral’s brutal Blue Monster course last week in Miami, as well as the tricky Hong Kong Golf Club, offered thorough examinations before the Masters.
“I don’t feel like there’s any adapting [to a new schedule],” Smith, who was T-6 at last year’s Masters, said. “We play a lot of strong golf courses around the world. Singapore is probably one of the hardest driving golf courses we play, and we get so we get so many different variations of golf courses.”
DeChambeau, whose second US Open crown came when he defeated Rory McIlroy at the vicious Pinehurst No. 2 last June, believes LIV’s 54-hole events actually work in favour of LIV players as he feels they are trained for faster starts.
“Every shot matters more out here at LIV because if you make a double or triple [bogey] you’re so far behind the eight-ball that it’s tough to get back,” DeChambeau said. “Allowing us to be in that mindset of attack has helped in certain scenarios. When you’ve got a US Open or a British Open there’s extreme patience required but for the most part, gunning after it has definitely helped.”
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Reed, the 2018 Masters champion, agrees. “It’s like a sprint; you can’t ease into rounds on that first day,” he said. “You have to put the throttle down right off the bat. [Granted], in the majors, [if you start] getting too aggressive early you can make careless mistakes.”
DeChambeau’s pre-Masters schedule is similar to his PGA Tour days, which was roughly five tournament starts leading into Augusta. This year, he has played six tournaments including an Asian Tour event in India. With his LIV schedule locked in before the season, DeChambeau said the spacing of competitive weeks allowed extra time to practice at home.
“I like having time off getting ready for [LIV], and getting my game good into a good place, getting a strategy and game plan set up,” he said. “If anything, I think it’s been a tremendous help for me personally [for the majors].”
Joaquin Niemann, who has received invitations to play in the Masters and the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow while also qualifying for the Open at Portrush, echoed DeChambeau. “We’re all working together on getting a good schedule for the majors, and I feel like it fits really good,” said Niemann, who is chasing a maiden major win. He and Smith also played several DP World Tour-sanctioned events in Australia late last year. “Having weeks at home to push harder at my house is where I can get the most confidence out of my game,” Niemann added.
Reed is a little different. He always traveled to play outside of his PGA Tour commitments, often in Europe. He was even made an Honorary Life Member of the DP World Tour in 2019 and frequently plays in Asia. Needless to say, his schedule leading up to this week at Augusta has truly been globetrotting.
“Once January got here, I played three DP World tour events, then [two LIV], so five straight, had two weeks off, then played three straight [one Asian Tour and two LIV],” Reed recounted. “I really haven’t had much time at home this year. I like getting in the groove of competing and shooting scores. [Then at the majors] let my abilities and all the prep take over.”
After LIV Singapore last month, Reed played the Asian Tour’s International Series Macau, an event that was part of the R&A’s Open Qualifying Series, which awarded three spots in the field at Royal Portrush. Reed finished second to fellow LIV player Carlos Ortiz and snared an Open guarantee.
Despite all that travel, Reed still made a scouting trip to Augusta National the following week, before LIV Miami. “I got home [from Macau] on Monday at 4 a.m., then went to Augusta on Wednesday and Thursday,” Reed said. “Anytime going out there is a treat. It was the first time seeing it since Hurricane [Helene] and losing [so many] trees. You can definitely see spots where it looks a little thinner but of course, every tree that is in play, none of those fell over. It’s still playing the same and is in pure condition. It’s Augusta.”
