Ian Poulter facing LIV Golf relegation
The rebel circuit's individual campaign ends on August 17 and anyone coming outside the top 48 in the points standings will lose their card for 2026. Poulter therefore has this week's event in Chicago and next week in Indianapolis to save his position.
This is a departure from last year, when Bubba Watson, despite finishing 53rd, was allowed to return for this year. This was after making 'a business case' to be retained on the Range Goats, the team of which he is skipper. Branden Grace was also given a stay of execution.
That scenario was widely criticised and held up as one of the reasons why the Saudi-funded league should not be awarded official status with the Official World Golf Rankings. However, since Scott O'Neil replaced Greg Norman as chief executive in January, LIV has resubmitted its application to join OWGR and thus give its golfers greater access to the majors at the same time as affording the four-year-old project more credibility.
This stricter stance can surely be viewed as LIV creating the jeopardy and player churn to show the OGWR that it meets its competitive criteria. Any hopes among those languishing in the standings that LIV would be as lax in applying its relegation rules were left disappointed by a recent missive from the executive that spelt out the urgency of the situation. Relegation means relegation this year and there will be no leeway.
Poulter is 51st and should he fail to escape the drop-zone, the 49-year-old will need either to top the International Series – although he is not even in the top 100 in the rankings of that Asian Tour mini-circuit – or come through the LIV Golf promotions tournament in December, where only the winner from a shoot-out featuring over 100 golfers will win a LIV place.
What next for Poulter?
It is believed that Poulter's contract is up as soon as the LIV season concludes on August 24 in Michigan with the Grand Team Finals and the question would then be where next for the veteran?
As a co-captain of the Majesticks team, he could clearly move into a mentoring or administrative role for the struggling outfit. It has been a terrible season for both Poulter and the Majesticks as a whole. Points are only awarded for those coming in the top 24 of each of the 54-man tournaments and after 11 events, the former world No 5 has only troubled the scorers on one occasion, with a tie for 13th in South Korea in May.
The Majesticks are one off the bottom in the 13-team league table and Henrik Stenson and Lee Westwood are also in peril of falling out.
Stenson is 47th and Westwood is 46th and it is entirely feasible that when it comes to next week, the Majesticks team-mates are battling against each either for their own LIV survival.
If circumstances demand, an intriguing return to the DP World Tour is possible for the trio. They resigned their membership two years ago as part of a group of the rebel players who lost an appeal against the Tour – with a London hearing adjudicating that Wentworth headquarters was within its rights to issue fines and suspension – but they are only required to pay the outstanding fines to reclaim playing privileges on the circuit where they established themselves.
'I can go back to the DP World Tour, you know,' Westwood told Telegraph Sport last month. 'LIV would pay my fines, which are ridiculously about £900,000 and I still have several exemptions to play on that circuit. LIV would already have paid my fines if I'd asked, but I didn't do it out of principle. It's a daft amount anyway.'
Poulter and Stenson would also have status to appear on the Tour and a comeback for any of them would cause a huge splash in the locker room. They were some of the highest profile departures when LIV was formed in 2022 and they were paid in the region of £20m each to jump ship. Sympathy might be in short supply as Stenson who was Ryder Cup captain when he defected – has since earned a further £10.8m, Westwood £8m and Poulter £7.6m.
However, with the Tour conspicuously lacking big names at the moment, the sponsors would no doubt welcome any reconciliations.
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