With the conclusion of the LIV 2024 season and the Individual and Team Championship trophies awarded out to Jon Rahm and Ripper, we take look at the individuals and teams who deserve to be recognised for some under-the-radar accomplishments.
Our superlatives attempt to predict the future when LIV 2025 returns on February 8, 2025, in Riyadh.
Who was LIV’s most underrated player this year? Which team has the best chance of bouncing back in 2025? What was the biggest win of the season?
INDIVIDUAL AWARDS FOR THE 2024 LIV GOLF SEASON
Most Underrated Player
Brooks Koepka
Despite two individual wins and several top-ten finishes, there wasn’t too much fanfare surrounding Koepka.
Koepka, who won the PGA Championship in 2023 and almost won The Masters that same year, seemed to have taken a step backwards, but his results on the golf course in 2024 say the Smash captain is as good as ever.
Koepka will raise his profile with an upcoming 2 v 2 match where he will join Bryson DeChambeau in taking on Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy in what will most assuredly be must-see TV.
Best First Year in LIV
Jon Rahm
Was there ever any doubt? Rahm never finished outside the top ten in tournaments completed and eventually captured the individual championship against Joaquin Niemann in Chicago.
Rahm’s celebrity boosted LIV’s overall status and raised the bar for the entire field.
Comeback Player of the Year
Martin Kaymer
The Cleeks captain finished in 49th out of 50th place among the field in 2023, recording zero points.
Kaymer rebounded in a big way, not only on the LIV tour, but performed admirably at the major championships he was invited to.
Kaymer finished the 2024 season in 40th place (out of 57 eligible golfers), a huge improvement from the disaster that was 2023.
Most Likely to Rebound
Dustin Johnson
The numbers are deceiving. All things considered, DJ had a commendable 2024, winning LIV Las Vegas and recording an additional two top-ten finishes.
For anyone else, those stats would amount to a successful season, but Johnson is looked at as one of LIV’s premier golfers and is expected to be in contention for every single tournament, fairly or not.
DJ’s performances at 2024 major championships were extremely disappointing which no doubt weighed on his overall game.
Veteran athletes in any sport have down seasons, and the elite ones have the capability to rebound. We’re banking on this being the case for DJ who will be back in a big way in 2025.
Best Individual Performance
Tyrrell Hatton
The largest margin of victory on the season belongs Tyrrell Hatton who won LIV Nashville by six strokes.
The Mad Hatter was consistent throughout the season and was an absolute pleasure to watch with his elite play and bombastic vocalisations.
Nashville would be Hatton’s lone individual win, but it was a memorable one that the Englishman dominated.
Along with Adrian Meronk, Hatton is exactly the type of non-captain player LIV should be targeting in the future to supplement the league to increase the popularity of the league and the overall competitiveness of the field.
Biggest Surprise
John Catlin
The super-sub made a name for himself filling in for the injured Charles Howell III and performed admirably for DeChambeau’s Crushers.
Catlin extended his fantastic season by filling in for the suspended Graeme McDowell at LIV Greenbrier and helped Smash to their second win of the season.
After filling in for Jon Rahm during the team championship in Dallas, the entire league has an idea of what Catlin is capable of.
There is a near 100% chance Catlin gets offered a contract to become a permanent member of some lucky team in need of an upgrade in 2025.
Best Story
Richard Bland
Bland is the definition of a grinder. A professional who had not found a ton of success in his early and mid-career, but exploded in 2024 in his early 50’s.
Bland has become one of LIV’s most reliable golfers, and somehow had an even better season than he did in 2023 when he finished in 20th place overall.
The Cleeks standout had an even better season outside of LIV, capturing both the U.S. Senior Open and the Senior PGA Championship trophies.
Bland remains one of LIV’s most likeable golfers and is easy to pull for no matter the tournament.
Most Important Win of the Season
Bryson DeChambeau
There’s something special about the majors that just don’t exist at either LIV or PGA regular season events.
While Jon Rahm’s first win at LIV UK, Sergio’s breakthrough win at Andalucía, or Koepka outdueling Rahm at Greenbrier are certainly the most memorable moments of 2024, they don’t come close to Bryson winning his second U.S. Open.
After almost winning the PGA Championship, DeChambeau followed up with an absolute second-shot clinic at Pinehurst No. 2 en route to defeating Rory McIlroy who looked like he had the tournament locked up halfway through Sunday.
It was the most dramatic ending to a major championship in several years. Golf is not what one would call a ‘jump out of your seat’ type of spectator sport, but that’s exactly what the U.S. Open was between Rory’s two short misses and Bryson’s bunker shot, the later easily being the greatest shot of his entire career.
Most Likely to Win the Individual Championship
Jon Rahm
Although the league is only approaching it’s fourth season, LIV has not had a repeat individual champion. In fact, those players who finished in the top three in 2022 and 2023 have not finished in the top three since.
In 2022 Dustin Johnson, Branden Grace, and Peter Uihlein were replaced by Talor Gooch, Cam Smith, and Brooks Koepka in 2023.
The second trio had admirable seasons, all finishing in the top ten for 2024, but were ultimately replaced by Jon Rahm, Joaquin Niemann, and Sergio Garcia in 2024.
Despite this data, we’ll go against the trend and take Jon Rahm to repeat as the 2025 individual champion.
Based on his two wins, three podium finishes, never finishing outside the top ten, and ending the season on a high note tells us that the Rahm of 2023 who won The Masters will likely be in form next season.
TEAM AWARDS FOR THE 2024 LIV GOLF SEASON
Most Likely to Bounce Back
Stinger
Three-quarters of Stinger were fantastic all season long. Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel, and Dean Burmester finished the season in The Lock Zone.
It was 2023 standout Branden Grace who suffered the worst collapse of any LIV golfer, and in doing so, prevented his team from winning any event.
Stinger’s final appearance in Dallas was a lesson in what they are capable of. Stinger finished 15-under par, the best of any team on Sunday, good enough to lead to them to the top spot in Tier 2 for 5th place overall.
Whether Grace is given a second chance or is replaced by another South African looking to make the jump to LIV will be decided this winter.
One thing is certain however, Stinger will be team champions at some point in 2025.
Best Team Performance
Smash
The largest margin of victory for a team belongs to Brooks Koepka’s Smash who defeated the 4Aces by seven strokes at LIV Las Vegas.
Vegas may have been one of the less popular tournaments on the season, but it served as an early reminder to those who may have doubted the staying power of Koepka and Gooch.
Biggest Surprise
Legion XIII
There is an unconscious bias against expansion teams in all professional sports, even if that team starts their inaugural season with one of the biggest stars in the sport.
Everyone knew that Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton would be good, but they had no idea just how great these two would be, often carrying their four-man team to several team championships.
Legion XIII’s immediate rise will put other teams on notice that a new possible expansion team for 2025 could potentially come in and win right away.
If LIV is able to pull another captain/non-captain combo like Rahm and Hatton away from the PGA or DP World Tour, it would only increase the league’s emphasis on team play, an aspect that has not been appropriately explained or marketed to the general audience.
Most Impressive Win of the Season
Fireballs
After losing two individual playoffs, Sergio Garcia finally broke through and captured his first-ever LIV Golf Tournament.
The Fireballs would host The Crushers for a simultaneous playoff, in which the former would eventually come out on top for their lone win of the season.
Andalucia was easily the most difficult course for the field in 2024. Winning at home in Spain, on what could be considered a majors-style golf course, was the most impressive, important, and meaningful team win of the regular season.
Most Improved Team
Ripper
The 2024 Team Champions proved that one minor, but important, roster tweak could change the trajectory of the entire team.
Swapping out Jed Morgan for the clutch Lucas Herbert proved to be one of the slyest moves of the offseason.
In 2023 Ripper had one win and one additional podium finish. By adding Herbert, Ripper increased their win totals to two and podium finishes to three, and capped off the season by winning the Team Championship in Dallas.
It’s amazing that neither Ripper nor Crushers featured an individual champion for the 2024 season, but instead made sure their rosters were more complete than top-heavy.
Teams looking for huge paydays via team championships will be looking to emulate what Ripper pulled off.
Not considering the unknown roster changes that will take place this winter, right now going into the 2025 season Ripper will certainly be the favourite to repeat.
Most Likely to Win the Team Championship
Legion XIII
I’ve mentioned in previous articles that Crushers and Ripper are the most complete teams in LIV, putting team play ahead of individual accomplishments.
Had Jon Rahm not withdrawn from the Dallas Team Championship the inaugural Legion XIII might have very well won, but alas we shall never know.
Both Legion XIII and Smash are one roster move away from contending for the 2025 Team Championship.
Rahm finds himself in a position to sign a top player either from another LIV team or find a signee from the PGA Tour to replace the relegated Kieran Vincent.
Caleb Surrat should get better in his second year as the league was banking on the young man’s potential and not so much his immediate results.
Operating off the assumption that Rahm is LIV’s richest man currently, fans should be prepared for a huge change to Legion XIII that will make one of the league’s top teams a contender for years to come!
