There is a reason why so many PGA Tour stars play in the Genesis Scottish Open immediately before The Open every year.
After LIV golfers struggled at The Open, Cam Smith and Jon Rahm have an idea for 2025 and beyond
Two of LIV Golf’s biggest stars know how they can feel better prepared for next year’s Open Championship.
Jack Milko has been playing golf since he was five years old. He has yet to record a hole-in-one, but he did secure an M.A. in Sports Journalism from St. Bonaventure University.
Players feel that they must reacclimate themselves to links golf, a completely different style of play, which, as the R&A likes to say, is “forged by nature.” Links golf requires shot-making, creativity, and patience. You have to flight the ball low, keeping it below the sometimes gale-force winds that can turn a heavenly experience into a hellish one. Playing links golf also requires you to use the contours of the hard Scottish turf, leaving you at the expense of an unlucky bounce. You never know where your ball may end up.
So it’s no wonder Xander Schauffele, who won at Royal Troon last year, tied for 15th at the Scottish Open the week before. He had his game ready for golf’s oldest major and handled the conditions like a champion. Heck, NBC Sports’ Curt Byrum, who walked with Schauffele during day three at this past year’s Open, called his round the most impressive performance he had seen in 2024. A stiff rain, coupled with 30-mile-per-hour winds, wreaked havoc on the leaders that Saturday afternoon. Yet, Schauffele, without wearing any rain gear, felt unbothered by Mother Nature and shot the most impressive 2-under 69 that you will ever see.
Meanwhile, LIV golf stars—other than Jon Rahm—struggled to get acclimated to the conditions. Cameron Smith, who won The Open in 2022 at St. Andrews, opened with a 9-over 80 at Royal Troon and missed the cut. Bryson DeChambeau, the reigning U.S. Open champion, also failed to make the weekend.
Five of the 16 LIV players missed the cut, while only three finished among the top 20. Rahm tied for seventh, finishing eight strokes back of Schauffele.
But three days after The Open, ahead of LIV Golf’s event in the United Kingdom, Rahm told Golf Digest’s Evin Priest that he would like to see a LIV Golf event held on a links-style course ahead of The Open—similar to what the PGA Tour does at The Renaissance Club.
“I’m pushing for it,” Rahm said to Golf Digest on Jul. 24.
“There’s so much that goes into adjusting to links golf, getting used to the greens and the ball reacting on the ground. I didn’t think about it until after [Royal Troon], but it’s undeniable how much it helps to play a links golf course the week before the Open.”
Fast-forward to this week and Smith is back in his native Australia, getting ready to play in the Queensland PGA Championship. The Brisbane native, in an interview with news.com.au, echoed Rahm’s earlier sentiments. He explained how playing at Valderrama in Southern Spain right before The Open did LIV golfers no favors this past summer.
“It was really two polar opposites of golf,” Smith told news.com.au on Wednesday.
“It was really hot [at Valderrama], and the ball was going a long way up in altitude, and then getting on to links [at Royal Troon], where it’s quite cold and windy, it’s probably not the best prep.”
LIV Golf has not yet announced its complete 2025 schedule, but the circuit will begin with four events in Saudi Arabia, Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore in February and March. Beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess where the Saudi-backed circuit will go and when.
“I don’t know if [playing a links golf event] will happen next year, but definitely in the future, it’s something we want to do,” Smith added.
Knowing that LIV Golf has had no hesitancy in hosting events on courses owned by Donald Trump in the past, perhaps they will play Trump Turnberry before The Open returns to Royal Portrush next July. Trump purchased Turnberry in 2014, five years after the famed Alisa Course at Turnberry last hosted The Open in 2009. Fifty-nine-year-old Tom Watson almost won then but missed a championship-clinching par putt on the 18th green. Stewart Cink then beat Watson in a playoff.
Coincidentally, current LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman won his first major at Turnberry in 1986, so the stars are aligned for ‘The Shark’ to schedule an event there for the first time. But doing so would be a direct shot at the R&A, who refuses to return to Turnberry for as long as Trump owns it. The R&A wants The Open to be about golf, not politics. And yet, political differences have not stopped Norman and LIV in the past. Since its launch in 2022, LIV Golf has staged events on a Trump-owned course on five occasions.
But if Turnberry denies LIV Golf, which, frankly, is the likeliest of outcomes, where could the Saudi-backed circuit turn to? The best links courses in the British Isles are already a part of The Open rota. None of those clubs would want to upset the R&A and ruin their chances of hosting golf’s oldest major in the future, either.
Then again, some venues have seen current times pass them by. With most courses residing in small towns, contemporary Opens completely take them over nowadays. Plus, with the game being longer than ever, the R&A can only host The Open at courses long enough for the modern game. So, perhaps LIV can look towards clubs that have not hosted The Open in some time. Maybe Royal Lytham & St. Annes fits that billing. Another venerable English venue, Royal Cinque Ports, which last hosted The Open in 1920, could host a LIV event, too. Who knows. These are just ideas, piggybacking off of Rahm’s and Smith’s desires, but Norman and Co. should certainly consider staging an event that pertains to links golf.
The players want it. But the results show that they need it, too.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
