LIV Golf forces PGA Tour to relocate Korn Ferry Tour event to a different course
LIV Golf and the PGA Tour continue their controversy despite the negotiations they have been holding since mid-2023 for the so-called “framework agreement”. The most recent chapter in this story is that the American circuit had to move an event from its feeder tour due to the breakaway league.
LIV Golf secured an agreement with The Grove Golf Course to hold its Nashville event there, scheduled to be held between June 21-23. According to Sports Business Journal's Josh Carpenter, this prompted the Korn Ferry Tour to move the event it was scheduled to hold there in September - the Simmons Bank Open.
"The PGA Tour is moving the Korn Ferry Tour's Simmons Bank Open to the Vanderbilt Legends Club in Nashville. The event had been scheduled at The Grove in Nashville, but LIV Golf is now hosting an event there this June."
The Simmons Bank Open has been played at The Grove for the past two seasons. The event was moved to the nearby Vanderbilt Legends Club at Vanderbilt University on a five-year deal.
The Korn Ferry Tour website still reflects that the Simmons Bank Open will be played at The Grove between Sept. 12-15. The LIV Golf website, meanwhile, states that the Nashville event will be hosted at The Grove.
The Grove is a 7,440-yard, par-72 course currently managed by Escalante Golf. The Vanderbilt Legends Club course, on the other hand, is owned by the University of the same name, has 7,190 yards, is par 72 and was founded in 1992.
What are the remaining venues on the LIV Golf calendar?
LIV Golf has eight tournaments scheduled to be held in 2024, six of them corresponding to its regular schedule. The Individual Championship and the Team Championship are the additional events added to the calendar.
The tour will play at the Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore from May 3-5, and at the Golf Club of Houston a month later (June 7-9). LIV will then visit The Grove in Nashville (June 21-23), before traveling to Spain to play at Real Club Valderrama from July 12-14.
From July 26-28, LIV will play its UK event at JCB Golf and Country Club and then finish the regular schedule at the Old White at The Greenbrier from August 16-18.
The Individual Championship will be played from September 13-15. On Tuesday, April 30, it was officially announced that the venue for this event will be the Bolingbrook Golf Club in Chicago.
This event will not only define the individual champion of the 2024 season but will also determine the seeded teams for the Team Championship, which will be played later.
The Team Championship is the only event on the calendar that has not confirmed its venue at this time. In 2023, this event was played at Trump National Doral, a course that was already visited by the league in 2024.