00:00It's fair to say that Live Golf has truly shaken up the world of men's professional golf,
00:04especially with the signings of Jon Rahm and Tyrell Hatton for its third season in 2024.
00:10But how does it all work? In this video, we're going to find out.
00:16The Live Golf League consists of 14 events across the world,
00:20starting in February and running until the closing event in August.
00:24While five of its tournaments are held in the US, the league will also visit Hong Kong,
00:29Australia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Spain and the UK for its 2024 season.
00:37Each event is three days long, featuring 18 three balls, all starting simultaneously with a shotgun
00:42start and there is no mid-tournament cut. For 2024, the league has 54 players, 13 teams of four each,
00:50along with two wildcard entries each week. These wildcards can earn points in the individual
00:55standings and if they perform well, could earn a future spot on a Live Golf team.
00:59In 2024, each tournament has a $20 million purse for the individual event divided up between all 54
01:06players and a $5 million purse for the team event going to the top three teams.
01:12To give you an idea of how that is all split out, let's take a look at the Live Golf Las Vegas event
01:16that took place in February 2024. Justin Johnson won that event and took home $4 million, while
01:23second place Taylor Gooch won $1.875 million. With no cuts at Live events, it still means that last
01:30placed Brendan Steele and Charles Swartzall took home $50,000 each despite finishing 22 shots behind the
01:37winner. The team prize money is divided between the top three teams and at the Live Las Vegas event,
01:42Smash GC won the team event by having the best combined score over the three rounds. Its four
01:49members, Graham McDowell, Taylor Gooch, Brooks Koepka and Jason Kokrak split the $3 million between them.
01:56The second place team was four aces GC, they split $1.5 million, while third place range goats GC split
02:02$500,000. Aside from tournament weekends themselves, players and teams are battling it out across the
02:09season for two titles, the individual championship and the team championship. The individual championship
02:16runs throughout the season. So at each tournament players finish with their three round total score
02:22to par as we're sort of used to and then the top 24 finishers earn points corresponding to their
02:28finishing position. The player with the most points at the end of the season wins the title.
02:33So, first place at a tournament gets 40 points, second place gets 30 points and third place gets
02:4024 points. Points are given out to players finishing inside the top 24 only. These points gather cumulatively
02:47through the whole season. So in 2023, to give you an example, the individual title went to Taylor Gooch,
02:52who amassed 192 points across the whole campaign. At the end of the season, non-exempt players who finish
02:5945th or lower in the individual points table are relegated from the league. So last year,
03:05Lee Westwood and Martin Keimer finished 45th and 49th respectively, but because they're exempt,
03:11because they're team captains, they did not get relegated. Jediah Morgan, James Pyatt, Chase Koepka
03:17and Shi Wang Kim were relegated from the league for finishing outside of the top 45. In 2024, the league
03:23introduced a transfer window and free agency period to allow for movement between rosters and trades
03:30to take place in the off-season. You can visit the Goal Monthly website for a separate explainer
03:35on how the live transfer system works. The team competition works in a very similar way to the
03:40individual championship. So each of the 13 teams builds a cumulatively score across a tournament weekend
03:47and the top eight teams at the end of the weekend earn points corresponding to that finishing position.
03:54So the team in first place for a weekend is awarded 32 points, second place gets 24 points and third
03:59place 16 points, all the way down to the team finishing in eighth that week. For example,
04:05after two events of the 2024 season, John Rahm's new Legion 13 team finished first in one event
04:11and fifth in the other. With 32 points being awarded for first place and eight points being awarded for
04:17fifth place, the team currently has 40 points, leaving it in first place in the order of merit after two
04:23events. In one final twist, leading the league table after 13 events won't actually win you
04:29the team championship outright as the league table simply decides the seedings for the final round of
04:34the year. The Live Golf League team championship finale takes place at the final event of the
04:40season in a knockout format that combines both match play and stroke play. So to give you an example,
04:46last year 2023, while four aces GC amassed the most points over the season, they didn't win the final
04:53team knockout because Bryson DeChambeau crushed his GC, won that final event of the year and claimed the
04:59team championship for 2023.
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