LIV Golf announces Chicago as host city for the 2024 individual championship
Chicago, more specifically Bolingbrook Golf Club, will host the Individual Championship for LIV Golf. It is the 13th tournament of the 2024 season in which players will battle it out for final positions in the individual standings. The title of 2024 LIV Golf League Individual Champion will also be bestowed on one player.
Team seedings for the 2024 Team Championship will be set based on this as well. It will take place September 13-15, effectively wrapping up the LIV schedule with an epic final individual event.
CEO Greg Norman said via the tour's website:
“The passionate sports fans of Chicago have embraced the intense competition and fan-first experience that LIV Golf delivers, and this year it will be an incredible setting for a high-stakes event as players battle it out for the individual title and a roster spot for 2025. We’re thrilled to return to Illinois with an event at Bolingbrook Golf Club as we celebrate the season-long race and set the stage for the 2024 finale," he said.
Mayor Mary Basta said they are excited to host the "star-studded, international field" of LIV's stars at The Village of Bolingbrook and Bolingbrook Golf Club for the event as well.
This event will determine who wins the season as an individual, but it also determine how free agency will go. The ranks the star players earn matter for where they'll go next year, be it out of the league or to a different team.
Those who finish in the top 24 will play again next year. Players with expiring contracts who finish from 25th to 48th will become free agents who can re-sign or move to a new team. Everyone else is relegated out of LIV and will have to play in the Promotions tournament.
Last season, the Individual Championship was in Jeddah. It involved a tense playoff between Brooks Koepka (who eventually won) and Talor Gooch, who did well enough to get the 2023 season-long title. Cameron Smith and Bryson DeChambeau were also tightly involved.
This season, it's difficult to tell who will be up for it when September rolls around. But currently, Joaquin Niemann, Jon Rahm and Dean Burmester are at the top of the leaderboard and could be battling it out all season.
LIV Golf CEO not invited to Open Championship
R&A director of corporate communications Mike Woodcock noted that LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman hadn't been given an invitation to the upcoming Open Championship, a tournament he won twice as a player.
He said:
“I don’t think there’s a G. Norman [on the list]. I think they would have let me know if there was. So, I’m not aware that he’s bought a ticket so far… Obviously there are tickets still available on the resale platform or hospitality. He’s very welcome to look there.”
Norman has become a controversial figure at Major tournaments. He wasn't invited to the Masters in 2023 and didn't go, and he didn't get invited in 2024 but attended purely as a spectator in spite of that.