LIV Golf Miami Preview 2024: Masters fever builds as 13 stars sharpen up for Augusta

LIV Golf returns to action in Miami

The Saudi-backed tour returns for its fifth event at the Blue Monster as LIV’s Top Trumps fine-tune before reuniting for the season’s first Major.

While the vast majority of LIV Golf Miami’s field will not be making the trip to Georgia, all eyes will inevitably be on those that are.

The Augusta-13, spearheaded by 2023’s Green Jacket winner John Rahm, and a further six Masters Champions tee it up in Miami in a final competitive outing before going head to head with old adversaries on the PGA Tour.

LIV Golf stages its first regular season event in Miami in 2024 after hosting the season-ending Team Championship in 2022 and 2023.

Augusta-bound Bryson DeChambeau and his Crushers GC squad topped the team standings in 2023, and are red hot once again this season having won consecutive team titles at LIV Golf Jeddah and Hong Kong.

Despite his red-herring of a ranking, World No.84 Joaquin Niemann, already a two-time winner on the LIV tour this year, will enter through the gates of Magnolia Lane as one of the favorites come April 11.

The Chilean is the tour’s breakaway leader in the individual standings with a 40-point buffer over Jon Rahm who is the only player this season to finish inside the top 10 in all four tournaments. LIV’s highest-ranked player is playing Doral for the first time as a professional and is still clinging on as World No.3 despite not earning OWGR points on the LIV circuit.

Three of LIV’s Green Jacket owners in the shape of HyFlyers GC Captain Phil Mickelson, 4Aces GC Captain Dustin Johnson, and teammate Patrick Reed have won individual titles in previous pro tournaments held at Doral.

Elsewhere in the field, Anthony Kim is set to make his first competitive start in his home country after returning sensationally to the game after a 12-year hiatus at LIV Golf Jeddah, showing signs of improvement after carding a final round 65 in Hong Kong.

The permanent wildcard for the remainder of 2023’s season said: “I knew something good was coming. It’s hard to stay patient when you feel like it’s right there, and I’m really happy that it hasn’t taken me one more round to get here. I’m just happy about the progress I’m making and the confidence I’m building going into the next few weeks.”

Which LIV players are playing the Masters?

Read our guide to the full Masters’ field and how they qualified.

What is the format of LIV Golf Miami?

With the addition of a 13th franchise – Rahm’s Legion XIII, the 2024 field rises to 54 players, inclusive of the two wildcard players – Anthony Kim and Hudson Swafford, who compete as unsigned individuals.

The team-assigned players compete in two competitions simultaneously- an individual event and a team event. Each stroke counts in the individual event, whereas in the team event, only the combined scores of the team’s top three players count for rounds 1 & 2, with all four scores counting in the final round of each event.

Each event is played over 54 holes, with no cuts and shotgun starts. For more information, check out our LIV Golf: Everything You Need to Know page.

Where is LIV Golf Miami played?

LIV Golf Miami will be played on the Blue Monster at Trump National Doral. The par 72, 7,701-yard course has been hosting elite-level professional tournaments since 1962 and features a series of strategically placed deep bunkers, long flowing fairways, interesting undulating greens, deep Bermuda rough, and a challenging assortment of water hazards.

Its 18th hole is traditionally considered one of the most difficult in golf, although in last year’s staging, the par-4 7th played the trickiest with a stroke average of 4.33. Speaking of the Blue Monster challenge, Crushers GC’s Charles Howell III said: “This golf course is brutal and every shot counts. There’s a lot of water out here, a lot of crosswinds, and a lot of difficult shots.”

How much does the LIV Golf Miami winner receive?

Like all regular season events, LIV Golf Miami has a $25 million purse, with $20 million assigned for the individual competition and $5 million for the team competition.

The individual winner in Florida is set to receive a $4 million share, ranging down to $50,000 for those finishing at the wrong end of the leaderboard.

Only the top three teams will receive prize money in each event. The winners will earn their team $3 million, with $1.5 million and $500k earned by the second and third-placed teams respectively.

Read our full guide to ‘How much every LIV player has been paid’.

LIV Golf Miami Tee Times

US viewers can catch all the action on the CW App & LIV Golf+ App.

Shotgun Starts (all time ET)

Saturday, April 06: CW App & LIV Golf+ App, 13.15

Sunday, April 07: CW App & LIV Golf+ App, 13.05

UK viewers can watch the action for free on the LIV Golf YouTube channel.

Shotgun Starts (all time GMT)

Saturday, April 06: LIV Golf YouTube, 17.15

Sunday, April 07: LIV Golf YouTube, 17.05

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About the author

Ross Tugwood

Senior Digital Writer

Ross Tugwood is a golf equipment writer for todays-golfer.com, specializing in data, analytics, science, and innovation.

Ross is passionate about optimizing sports performance and has a decade of experience working with professional athletes and coaches for British Athletics, the UK Sports Institute, and Team GB.

He has post-graduate degrees in Performance Analysis and Sports Journalism, enabling him to critically analyze and review the latest golf equipment and technology to help you make better-informed buying decisions.