Should LIV Golf add another star?

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It was recently reported that Dustin Johnson re-signed with LIV Golf, and Bryson DeChambeau has also been transparent about his contract. While some of the exact contract details of LIV’s other stars aren’t public, what’s more important to LIV this offseason: keeping current stars, or should it make another Jon Rahm-like splash and sign a big name like it last did a few years ago?

Josh Berhow, managing editor (@Josh_Berhow): You could argue that LIV is due for a big addition. Anthony Kim joined in 2024, and although it hasn’t performed well, it was a surprising and splashy name. I wonder, though, if there’s any current, established PGA Tour pro who would quit at this point, like another Rahm-level guy. Part of me thinks loyalties are already cemented and wooing a famous guy would be a lot harder than it sounds. Getting some of those top guys back should probably be the priority.

Sean Zak, Senior Editor (@sean_zak): LIV doesn’t need another star. Seven more stars needed. The league simply doesn’t have enough elite player power to gain a significant audience. Joaquin Niemann has been great; Cam Smith has not. Bryson DeChambeau has been great; Brooks Koepka has been up and down. Sergio Garcia has been pretty good; Phil Mickelson has not. As I’ve been saying for three years now, all the money in the world can buy you big names, but it can’t guarantee that they play great, compelling golf.

Josh Schrock, editor (@Schrock_And_Awe): Everyone feels pretty entrenched in their respective sides right now. As Zak pointed out, LIV needs a few more stars to move the needle. I doubt those moves are there. Their best move is to re-sign their famous sons. If they lose one or two of their best guys, the air will really start to leave the balloon.

A player who turned down a PGA Tour invitation and joined LIV Golf instead, Tom McKibbin, won 2026 Masters and Open Championship Invitationals when he won the Hong Kong Open on Sunday. It comes months after Augusta National and the R&A announced the winners of six national events (Scottish, Spanish, Japanese, Hong Kong, Australian and South African) would earn places in those two majors. Still no world ranking points, are these new exceptions good recruiting points for LIV?

Berhow: They’re not bad for recruiting because it offers extra chances for majors, but it targets the wrong type of players. Yes, LIV could benefit from bringing in new talent, but a bunch of young Tom McKibbins won’t be eye-catching. They need established stars; and those guys probably aren’t worried about these extra invitations because ideally they wouldn’t need them.

Zack: Not really. To gain great access through those events, you almost always have to win. How to be so good, beat everyone else in a big field. It’s certainly not much of a carrot.

Schrock: It’s better than no access at all, but it’s still small enough that it won’t attract the kind of players who need it to move the needle.

When these exemptions were announced, it came with the caveat that winners of PGA Tour Fall Series events will no longer receive exemptions from the Masters. Do you like change? Or do you prefer the winners of the fall events to win them?

Berhow: I like this better. Focus in the fall on earning PGA Tour status. Plus, the Masters is more global than ever. This makes sense.

Zack: I don’t mind that the fall series events don’t get automatic passes. I wouldn’t mind Augusta extending more invitations through the year-end OWGR rankings, which are a greater representation of skill than a week-long warm-up in a weaker field.

Schrock: I prefer the invitations to go to the winners of the national openings instead of the weaker PGA Tour fields. Golf is a global game and the Masters has prioritized the global nature of the sport in recent years. Hold the FedEx Cup Fall for a card win and ask guys who want to win a trip to Augusta National to play in the National Open.

The most revered golf course in the world, the Old St. Andrews, it will add bunkers and be extended by 132 meters ahead of the 2027 Open Championship, a move that R&A chief governance officer Grant Moir said was “appropriate” to “properly” adapt to how the modern game is played. Do you mind the length of a history course like this?

Berhow: I think there is something confusing about the Old Course making announcements like this. If a 60-year-old country club needs to extend its course due to modern equipment, so be it, but when you hear about some of golf’s greatest cathedrals basically saying “what we currently have isn’t,” it gives you pause. We don’t like to change the classics – golf courses, cars, recipes, you name it. I’m interested to see how this looks on the property, where there isn’t a ton of room to work with. It makes you wonder if these tops will hold up for the upcoming opening after the return to St. Andrews.

Zack: It’s just not easy to see where the new cargo boxes will fit in certain holes. The extended Old Course begins to eat up space within itself. But at the end of the day, it’s mostly just for Open Championship week, so we won’t be talking about it for more than a month every five years.

Schrock: I don’t know if it bothers me, but it speaks to the broader problem that professional golf faces with distance and equipment. We want to see the world’s best play meaningful tournaments on historic courses. And we want to see them play the course the way it was meant to be played. When I was at the Truist Championship at the Philly Cricket Club this year, the difference in the way the course played on the first day in no conditions compared to the second round when it was raining and windy showed how these golden age courses can still present a challenge when the ball doesn’t fly for miles. We won’t talk about the old course changes other than one week every five years, but that speaks to the bigger problem.

Gary Birthday, Gary Player, who turned 90 on Saturday. What is your most memorable interaction or story about the Black Knight?

Berhow: I met Gary a decade ago, just a few weeks into the job, and we did sit-ups together for a video that I don’t believe ever saw the light of day. He was loud and energetic and kept punching me in the stomach, which sounds almost like when you think of Gary Player.

Zack: Honestly, my most memorable interaction was watching the player punch Josh in the stomach.

Schrock: I’m sorry I missed the black knight kicking Berhout’s belly.