[PHOTO: Justin Casterline]
There was drama until the very end, but one of LIV Golf’s early signings, Henrik Stenson, was relegated from the league at LIV Golf Indianapolis along with Anthony Kim.
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The league’s last individual tournament of the year, which Sebastian Munoz won in a playoff over Jon Rahm, finalised the top 48 finishers in the season standings who kept their status for 2026. Anyone ranked 49th or worse fell into the “Drop Zone” and were relegated.
Those players were Stenson (49th), who was among the first wave of players to join LIV, coming on board for its third ever event in 2022, as well as 2019 US Amateur champion Andy Ogletree, Mito Pereira, Yubin Jang, Kim and Frederik Kjettrup (54th).
Oddly, a second-place finish for Rahm was enough to take the season-long individual championship despite not winning a single individual event all year. The two-time major champion clinched the $US18 million ($A27.6 million) bonus title from Joaquin Niemann, who won five LIV events this year. Rahm, though, had four runner-up results and only finished outside the top 10 once in 13 events. Even then, that was a T-11 result.
Ironically, because Poulter finished 48th and Stenson 49th, the two former Ryder Cup stalwarts for Europe were locked in a battle of friendly fire to send the other packing from the league.
On LIV, only the top 24 finishers at tournaments earn points and Poulter needed a top 20 or better.
Stenson, the 2016 Open champion at Royal Troon, needed a birdie on the final hole at The Club at Chatham Hills in Indiana to defer relegation to Englishman Poulter. Stenson found the fairway on the last and hit his approach to close range. However, a disastrously heavy hand sent his birdie putt racing past the cup.
Stenson and his co-captains on the Majesticks GC team, Poulter and Lee Westwood, were all vulnerable to relegation throughout LIV Golf Indianapolis.
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But Poulter rallied with a 67 on Sunday to finish T-17 and move up three places into 48th. Westwood was also vintage with a 66 to join Poulter at T-17 and he ended in 46th place.
Kim, the former three-time PGA Tour winner who spent 12 years in anonymity due to an injury-forced retirement, was brought back to pro golf by LIV for the 2024 season to global fanfare. Kim was also relegated.
LIV Golf, who recently re-submitted its application to the Official World Golf Rankings board to receive points, confirmed it would enforce the relegation format. That will help the league demonstrate enough player turnover to satisfy OWGR criteria for points.
LIV also banished a loophole from last year that saw RangeGoats captain and two-time Masters champion, Bubba Watson, finish worse than 48th but maintain his place due to an exemption for team captains, while South Africa’s Branden Grace also returned given he made a “business case” to stay on the Stinger GC team.
Now, the only way to return to LIV is by finishing at the top of the order of merit on the Asian Tour’s lucrative International Series or via the LIV Golf Promotions Event (qualifying school).
