LIV Golf Watch: The Week Ahead (September 1-7)

LIVGolf.com’s newest feature, LIV Golf Watch: The Week Ahead, tracks the participation of LIV Golf players in tournaments around the world during the offseason, as well as provide a roundup of notes regarding the league’s players and teams. This week, five LIV Golf players are in action on the DP World Tour.

IRISH OPEN

The Irish Open is a prestigious event on the DP World Tour that features a purse of $6 million and 5,000 Race to Dubai points. The LIV Golf players teeing it up include Brooks Koepka (Smash GC), Tyrrell Hatton (Legion XIII), Patrick Reed (4Aces GC), Adrian Meronk (Cleeks Golf Club) and Tom McKibbin (Legion XIII).

The Irish Open utilizes a rotating course schedule. This week’s host course, The K Club in Straffan, County Kildare, previously hosting the tournament in 2016, where Rory McIlroy claimed victory, and in 2023, where Vincent Norrman won. The course is one the premier Irish venues and hosted the Ryder Cup in 2006, with the European team thrashing the United States team,18.5 to 9.5.

The LIV Golf players will be joining a strong field that includes Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry. Although Fireballs GC Captain Sergio Garcia was set to join the field, he pulled out of the event late last week.

BROOKS KOEPKA. The Smash GC captain will be making his Irish Open debut and has only made one DP World Tour start (2024 Alfred Dunhill Links) since the 2020 season. Koepka does have a DP World Tour win which came at the 2014 Turkish Airlines Open when he beat Ian Poulter by one stroke. Koepka is coming off a poor LIV Golf season and hasn’t registered a top-10 finish since LIV Golf Singapore in March, the second event of the season.

TYRRELL HATTON. Hatton has been one of the DP World Tour’s best players over the course of his career, amassing eight victories between 2016-2025. He’s played in seven Irish Opens and finished T5 at the K Club in the 2016 Irish Open. He’s also missed the cut in five of his seven Irish Open starts including the 2023 event at the K Club.

The Englishman will be making his first start since winning the LIV Golf Michigan Team Championship with Legion XIII.

PATRICK REED. Reed will be making his Irish Open debut this week and has never won on the DP World Tour. The 4Aces star typically plays a handful of DP World Tour events per season and finished runner-up at the 2023 Hero Dubai Desert Classic. Reed had an excellent 2025 season for LIV Golf and ranked 7th in the individual standings.

ADRIAN MERONK. Meronk became the first Polish golfer to win on the DP World Tour at the 2022 Irish Open at Mount Juliet. The Cleeks GC star was a fantastic player on the DP World Tour prior to joining LIV Golf and was the 2023 DP World Tour Player of the Year. Meronk has won on the DP World Tour four times, with his most recent win coming at the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters in 2023.

Cleeks GC fell short in the Michigan Team Championship, but Meronk will be entering the week with some momentum after defeating LIV Golf’s Individual Champion Jon Rahm in the quarterfinals, 2 & 1.

TOM McKIBBIN. The young Legion XIII rising star is coming into the week with a great deal of confidence. McKibbin shot a 5-under 65 in the final round of the Michigan Team Championship, playing a massive role in helping Legion XIII walk away with the trophy. The Northern Irishman had a phenomenal rookie season, finishing 20th in the season-long standings.

McKibbin should be well suited for the K Club due to his elite off the tee game. The 22-year-old ranked 5th for the season in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee and is both long and accurate. He’s played in three Irish Opens, including in 2023 where he finished T39 at the K Club.

PLAYER NEWS

Jon Rahm was selected to The European Ryder Cup team and will be making his fourth consecutive Ryder Cup appearance at Bethpage Black under Captain Luke Donald. Rahm will make his next start at the BMW PGA Championship, the DP World Tour’s flagship event, from Sept. 18-21 at Wentworth Club in England. He’s expected to be joined by the entire European Ryder Cup team, which mirrors their successful strategy prior to their 2023 Ryder Cup victory at Marco Simone.

Brooks Koepka has received and accepted an invitation to play in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, a Rolex Series event on the DP World Tour. The Smash GC captain has played at Wentworth twice before, in 2014 (MC) and 2015 (T72).

Last week, Paul Casey (Crushers GC) made his first start at Crans-sur-Sierre Golf Club since 2013 at the Omega European Masters. After a slow start, Casey shot the third-best round of the day on Sunday to finish inside the top 25 (24th).

The inaugural Jakarta International Championship has joined The International Series and will take place this October with a $2 million purse at Damai Indah Golf – PIK course. The International Series Rankings offer the top player in the standings at the end of the season a direct entry into the LIV Golf League. Points earned across the 10 premier Asian Tour events determine the rankings, with the players who finish 2nd to 8th gaining automatic access to the second round of the LIV Golf Promotions event.

Last week, LIV Golf announced a commitment to New Orleans City Park, with the inaugural LIV Golf Louisiana scheduled for June 26-28, 2026. RangeGoats GC Captain Bubba Watson appeared on Fox 8 TV in New Orleans to talk about what makes LIV Golf special. “It’s the same sport; it’s just different entertainment for the fans. We’re trying to give the fans something more. You got the kids who might not want to see every shot, so you have the fan zone, different games, a lot of basketball, sometimes we have the petting zoo with goats out,” Watson said. “The wife or the husband might like music more than sport, and so they’re there for the concerts. We just try to change it up, make it for everybody.”

Graeme McDowell (Smash GC) has played on four Ryder Cup teams, winning three of them. In 2027, the Ryder Cup will be played at Adare Manor in McDowell’s home country of Ireland. While speaking to BBC Sport, McDowell expressed his desire to be a part of the event, even if it meant making coffee for the players.

"Jon Rahm asked me earlier this year if I was asked to be a vice-captain at Bethpage Black would I accept it. I replied 'if they asked me to make coffees for you, I would go and make coffees. That's how much it means to me and how much I want to be there in a supporting role for Team Europe. It goes without saying as we look towards Adare Manor in two years' time,” he said.

"I would do anything to be in that European team room, to be part of that team, to put that Team Europe shirt on one more time, to have the badge on my chest, to cheer the guys on and help Europe win another Ryder Cup. I hope to be there. I feel like I have something to give back. I wish Team Europe all the best at Bethpage Black - I will be pulling for them every shot and wish I was there, but the politics is a lot of levels above what I do, it's definitely the powers that be that will figure this out for us."

Majesticks GC Tri-Captain Ian Poulter struggled in 2025, narrowly escaping the dreaded Drop Zone by finishing 48th in the standings after a strong finish at LIV Golf Indianapolis. While addressing his Instagram followers, the 49-year-old revealed that he’d been dealing with an injury throughout the 2025 season.

“Reflecting back on my 26th consecutive season on Tour and this one was not easy,” Poulter wrote. “I had an injury that I didn’t tell you guys about, but we fought through it. It’s had laughter, it’s had tears, it’s had the utmost stress. Most importantly I have taken some incredible strength from the people who have supported me and keep supporting me. You’ve given me the reason to keep working so hard.

“This game never ceases to amaze me time and time again. The will to win and improve won’t ever stop. I love this game and I love playing in front of you guys. Not sure I will ever be ready to hang up the boots. The Dream continues and the Dream is real. Never let anyone get in the way of those Dreams.

So many incredible things to look forward to for us all. Let 2026 preparations begin.”

Crushers GC Captain Bryson DeChambeau has embarked on another social media challenge. This time, he’s attempting to wedge a ping pong ball into a small cup sitting on his second-floor balcony.

Through the first seven days, he’s yet to succeed in the incredibly difficult feat. The LIV Golf player and YouTube star took 16 days to complete his viral hole-in-one challenge last year, successfully hitting a hole-in-one over his house on his 134th attempt, so it's safe to say DeChambeau will be attempting his new challenge until he is successful.