Here’s everything you need to know as captains and general managers start to work on their LIV Golf team rosters for 2026…
The LIV Golf transfer window has officially opened – meaning teams can now trade or sign players ahead of the 2026 season.
Before we get into the details, a quick reminder of how it works…
How did it all end in 2025?
Lock Zone: The top 24 players in the 2025 LIV Golf standings have been automatically offered a contract for 2026 with their current team. Should he choose to decline, he will become a free agent and can be signed by another team.
2025 LIV GOLF LOCK ZONEPOSITIONPLAYERPOINTS1Jon Rahm226.162Joaquin Niemann223.683Bryson DeChambeau144.744Sebastian Munoz133.065Dean Burmester117.256Talor Gooch112.707Patrick Reed109.408Carlos Ortiz99.259Sergio Garcia89.8210David Puig85.4811Bubba Watson78.9912Abraham Ancer75.5413Marc Leishman74.5014Dustin Johnson72.9015Lucas Herbert71.9016Paul Casey71.4717Adrian Meronk70.6618Cameron Smith68.8019Thomas Pieters67.9120Tom McKibbin65.8721Charles Howell III61.5322Harold Varner III60.3123Charl Schwartzel56.3024Phil Mickelson55.97
Open Zone: Those who finished from 25th to 48th will can be re-signed by their teams if they are out of contract or continue competing for the franchise they are attached to if their existing deal includes the 2026 season. They can also be traded from one team to another or be released if their contract has expired.
2025 LIV GOLF OPEN ZONEPOSITIONPLAYERPOINTS25Anirban Lahiri54.3326Tyrrell Hatton52.1527Richard Bland51.0328Cameron Tringale49.7929Branden Grace49.6830Louis Oosthuizen45.1331Brooks Koepka45.1332Jinichiro Kozuma43.3333Caleb Surratt43.2334Graeme McDowell39.7735Josele Ballester39.2836Ben Campbell30.7137Martin Kaymer27.6438Peter Uihlein23.1139Sam Horsfield19.8040Matt Jones19.2541Jason Kokrak17.9042Matthew Wolff17.3343Danny Lee11.7644Kevin Na10.0645Brendan Steele9.3646Lee Westwood9.2047Chieh-Po Lee9.1648Ian Poulter6.50
Drop Zone: The players who finished 49th or below have been relegated from the league. They remain eligible to return to the league via LIV Golf Promotions or the International Series – but more on those later.
2025 LIV GOLF DROP ZONEPOSITIONPLAYERPOINTS49Henrik Stenson6.1250Andy Ogletree5.5351Mito Pereira5.1052Yubin Jang1.2853Anthony Kim0.0054Frederik Kjettrup0.00How does free agency and recruiting work?
Any players who finished in the Lock Zone but have declined the automatic contract extension with their current team will become a free agent, as will any players in the Open Zone whose contracts have expired.
The means team captains and GMs can add to their roster in one of the following ways:
Signing a free agent
Signing a player contracted to another team
Agreeing to trade contracted players – with the other team’s approval
Recruiting players not contracted to LIV Golf
Signing a player who qualifies via the LIV Golf Promotions event or the International Series
Speaking of which…
How can a player earn a LIV Golf contract?
In a bit of breaking news, the top two players in this year’s International Series Rankings will be offered a spot on LIV Golf next year.
Previously, only one player from the Asian Tour’s season-long standings earned a place.
With two events remaining – the Moutai Singapore Open and the PIF Saudi International – the two spots are currently occupied by Scott Vincent and Miguel Tabuena. Zimbabwean Vincent has already played three seasons on LIV Golf – with Torque GC in 2022 and then the Iron Heads in ’23 and ’24 before being relegated.
“The extra spot is a phenomenal opportunity for our members to rise to one of the pinnacle platforms in our game and there is no doubt that the top two positions will be fiercely contested over the next two events,” Cho Minn Thant, the Asian Tour’s commissioner and CEO, said.
Rahul Singh, head of The International Series, added that it is “a real life-changing opportunity for the players to grasp”.
Meanwhile, there will also be another LIV Golf Promotions event – though details for this are yet to be confirmed.
Last year, 93 players competed for a share of the $1.5 million purse and one spot in the 2025 LIV Golf season. It was won by Chieh-po Lee of Chinese Taipei, who competed as one of the two wildcards and finished in the Open Zone.
So, who’s been signed so far?
The first bit of news on this front concerns Graeme McDowell.
The former US Open champ finished 34th in the 2025 standings, just three places behind his Smash GC captain Brooks Koepka, but it looks like he will be retained for next season.
McDowell, who has been an ever-present at LIV Golf since the league was inaugurated in 2022, has finished in the Open Zone in all four seasons, banking just shy of $15 million in the process.
It was an up-and-down year for the Northern Irishman, who had a good run at getting his first LIV Golf victory in Virginia before being edged by Joaquin Niemann.
Speaking to Bunkered at the Link Hong Kong Open, where he missed the cut by a single shot, McDowell confirmed he would be staying on with Smash for another year.
“Obviously I felt like I played okay this season and certainly held my own,” he explained. “Certainly lots of room for improvement, more consistency.
“But I’m 46, I’ll be 47 next year, I still feel competitive. When I’m not competitive anymore, I’ll walk away and give somebody else that spot. At the minute, I still feel like I’m good enough to be out there and good enough to be out on any tour.”