What Is LIV Golf Transfers? The Innovative Yet Confusing Step Taken by Greg Norman

The Greg Norman-led league has introduced another innovative format for its already peculiar circuit. Last year in November, the breakaway league shared a rundown of season-end trades, three different zones for players in the individual standings, and the LIV Golf Promotions. Then, the rebel league also hinted at a mid-season transfer window, which was supposed to take place in the 2024 season.

So, as the golfers tee up at the Sentosa Golf Club, LIV Golf announced that mid-season trading will soon start. The concept seems confusing, and there are questions about when exactly it will start and how it will affect the 54 players.

Will players be compensated in LIV Golf’s mid-season trade? 

Jerry Foltz from LIV Golf introduced the LIV Golf mid-season trade in Singapore. It would start after the ongoing event concludes. To be exact, by the time the clock hits midnight on May 6th, the mid-season trades will start. Foltz explained that at first, they didn’t expect any trades to take place, but there has been some noise as a few captains and teammates are not getting along well.

The trades will continue for a month and probably end by early June. In this trade, a team would swap a player with another team, but it would be without any compensation. What happens if the player’s contract is about to end? The team can decide to extend the contract; however, there is a catch.

Suppose the player’s contract gets extended but he ends up in relegation; regardless of the extension, it would stand as null. Flushing It Golf posted about the new format and argued about the uncertainty regarding players’ contracts. They highlighted that LIV Golf hasn’t disclosed which player’s contract is nearing expiration. Hence, they cannot just expect the fans to agree with the mid-season trades without any transparency.

Soon, LIV Golf might explain further about the entire process. Another interesting question that arises is whether a team could trade in the wildcards of Anthony Kim and Hudson Swafford. The answer to this is a simple no. The team cannot trade the wildcards with their existing players as their contracts don’t allow it. But the broadcasters revealed that a few teams had shown interest in buying out Anthony Kim. Why only Kim?

The reason behind the LIV Golf team’s intrigue in Anthony Kim

Anthony Kim has completed only three full events at LIV Golf. In all three of them, AK’s performance was far from perfect. However, when he opened his round in LIV Golf Singapore, something looked different. At Sentosa Golf Club, Kim shot his lowest opening round in all of his rounds played so far.

He shot three birdies in the first round and finished with 2 under 69. This was relatively a huge step forward from his 4 over in 76 in Miami or 6 over 78 when he first played in Jeddah after 12 years. Unfortunately, Kim will have to be a wildcard for the 2024 season and maybe in the third full season of LIV Golf, he may find his place in a team.

What are your thoughts about the LIV Golf’s internal transfers? Which player do you think will move to a different team?