LIV Golf adds new qualifying route with Q-school tweak

It may not be easy to join LIV Golf, but it is now slightly easier than it has been.

The team golf league has cracked open its door marginally wider ahead of the 2026 season, and is bringing its qualifying tournament to one of the global homes of golf dreamers: Central Florida.

LIV Promotions will stage a four-round event Jan. 8-11 at Black Diamond Ranch in Lecanto, Fla. — a three-course property that bills itself as “Not Your Typical Florida Golf.” The competition will grant full status to the top two finishers; at last year’s qualifying event just the winner earned status.

In years past, LIV’s qualifying school was hosted in Dubai and Saudi Arabia, far from the hotbed of minor-league golf talent that is the American South. Now, given the extra qualifying spot and the tournament’s setting, it would be fair to expect a heightened level of competition; the event, which attracted 93 players in 2024, also has been extended from 54 holes to 72.

The tournament will be played out over four days, with players of higher qualification earning byes to the second or third day.

In addition to a juicier qualifying event, LIV also is doubling the number of spots available in its International Series, which wraps up later this month. Two players not already exempt on LIV will gain full status for 2026 based on their year-long performances in the seven International Series events, the last two of which take place in November.

Regardless of why LIV is cracking its door wider, the move is no doubt indicative of the specific era the tour finds itself in. There has been no reported progress for the Saudi PIF (LIV’s owner) on reaching an investment deal with the PGA Tour, and there has been little public movement in the way of recruiting high-end talent.

The league excelled in its first few offseasons of not only bringing in top players but also generating speculation about which PGA Tour players might be joining. Thus far in 2025, there has been very little buzz, though we are still three months away from the 2026 season kicking off. Plenty could still happen, as it did in 2023 when Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton joined the league, the same season where Anthony Kim made his splashy return.

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