Asian Tour Recap: Supupramai Claims the Bharath Classic
Poosit Supupramai claims his maiden Asian Tour victory at the Bharath Classic 2025, securing his card for next season. Preview the Saudi Open finale and Order of Merit battles.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents
- Team Rosters and Relegation Results
- OWGR Points All But Confirmed
- Scott Vincent and Yosuke Asaji Join for 2026
- 2026 Schedule Updates
What happened at the Team Championship?
While the Team Championship in Michigan did serve as the conclusion to the LIV Golf season, a lot of the changes that needed to be addressed in the offseason were decided before that. Most importantly from the competition side of things was the rosters. The final individual event was the week prior in Indianapolis and that’s when the fight to avoid being relegated out of the league concluded.
For those that aren’t familiar with the relegation rules, the season long standings are broken up into three categories:
- The “Lock Zone”: This is the top 24 players in the league. They’re guaranteed a spot on LIV Golf next season.
- The “Open Zone”: This is comprised of players finishing from 25th to 48th in the standings. If they aren’t contracted to LIV Golf for another season, anything can happen here. Their current team is allowed to sign them, trade them, or opt out of signing them altogether. It’s the only zone that doesn’t come with any guarantees.
- The “Drop Zone”: These are the full time players that finished outside of the top 48 in the rankings. These players are relegated out of LIV Golf and are ineligible to play in the league the following season.
The players that finished inside the lock zone and were relegated out of LIV Golf for the 2026 season were:
- Henrik Stenson (Majesticks GC)
- Andy Ogletree (HyFlyers GC)
- Mito Pereira (Torque GC)
- Yubin Jang (Iron Heads GC)
- Anthony Kim (Wild Card)
- Frederik Kjettrup (Cleeks GC)
The LIV Golf offseason is an interesting time for professional golf, as the DP World Tour season comes to an end, the PGA Tour fall series concludes, and everyone learns what their 2026 season might look like. Most interesting, for me, is that a number of players are left with a decision to make.
This brings us to the first thing that we know.
Five teams have roster spots they need to fill this offseason.
We know for sure that five teams have a vacancy, but many others have the option to recruit players if they want to improve their depth. Early on in the offseason rumors were swirling that a team that greatly underperformed last season were looking to improve the roster, despite having no players finish in the drop zone. Ripper GC, who finished in 9th place place last year after bringing back the exact roster that won them the 2024 Team Championship, were deep in conversations with Min Woo Lee and his agent Brent Hamilton to have him make the jump to the global team league. However, the combination of a strong finish in the Baycurrent Classic saw Min Woo jump into the top 60 which improved his status on the PGA Tour next season, and the two being a bit too far apart on numbers for a signing bonus saw Min Woo commit to the PGA Tour for 2026. Ripper GC have yet to formally announce that they’ve signed any extensions, but it’s looking like they’ll run it back with the same roster. TBD.
Another team that wasted absolutely no time is Cleeks GC, who were unable to finish in the top 5 one single time last season, largely due to the struggles from newcomer Frederik Kjettrup. In fairness, he’s a strong player who was battling some injuries and didn’t fully adapt to the level of pressure that playing at the highest level comes with. Nevertheless, he found himself relegated out of the league and Cleeks GC had a spot to fill. Just last week the Cleeks announced they’d signed Frenchmen Victor Perez to replace Kjettrup, an established pro who will instantly provide a boost to the roster and get Cleeks right in the mix. Additionally, they signed Richard Bland to an extension and he’ll be returning for the 2026 season after finishing 27th in the individual standings.
There are some rumblings, but no confirmations, for some of the other openings left by the relegated players. Though it’s not been officially announced, it looks as if former LIV Golf player Laurie Canter will be returning to the league, as he is in deep discussions to rejoin despite earning a PGA Tour card for next season. The most likely landing spot for him would be on the Majesticks, filling Henrik Stenson’s spot.
Mito Pereira’s spot is looking like it’ll be filled by Abraham Ancer, current member of Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs GC. Recent reports suggest that Luis Masaveu, who played the first half of 2025 on LIV Golf will join Fireballs GC for the season, and Ancer will head to Torque.
That leaves the vacancies on Iron Heads GC, left by Yubin Jang, and HyFlyers GC, left by Andy Ogletree. There’s nothing to confirm at this point for those two teams, but it’s looking like the filling of those two spots, and potentially one other spot on one of those rosters are going to be the biggest moves, from a roster standpoint, of this offseason.
All in all the overall depth of the league should be greatly improved for next year. Perez for Kjettrup, Canter for Stenson, and a couple of moves yet to be announced will greatly improve the overall competition and provide the opportunity for more players to get in major championship fields going forward. Which brings us to the next topic.
Official World Golf Ranking points seem all but confirmed for LIV Golf
Earlier this offseason LIV Golf abruptly announced that they’d be moving all events to 72 holes, a change they’d been open to as a league since the earliest events. Originally, they were willing to make the change if it came with a guarantee of points, but that guarantee was never offered and the objection from the OWGR board was focused around the ability for players to earn their way into the league, and issues with static fields. These concerns were addressed in the offseason as the number of LIV Golf exemptions awarded to the Asian Tour’s International Series was increased from 1 → 2. Additionally, the number of spots awarded via the LIV Golf Promotions Event, which will be hosted early next year in Florida was increased from 1 → 2. This will mean that the number of Wild Card players increase from 2 → 4.
To address the static field objection from the OWGR, LIV Golf is also adding in a rotating spot that will be filled by various criteria throughout the season. Depending on the event this may be a local qualifier, this may be an exemption determined through the Asian Tour, or a player that’s earned exemption through some other means.
These changes also increase the field size from 54 → 57, with three additional wild card players, one that changes throughout the season.
All of these changes, coupled with the big change of moving from 54 to 72 holes, look like world rankings points are all but a formality at this point. The field sizes address the concerns that OWGR originally had, and the change to 72 holes is intended to maximize the points that will be awarded.
Yosuke Asaji joins, and Scott Vincent re-joins for the 2026 season
With the Asian Tour’s Internatinoal Series coming to an end, we’ve learned which two players will be joining LIV Golf as Wild Card players for the 2026 season. These exemptions are awarded to the top two finishers in the International Series Order of Merit.
The first place finisher in the OOM was Scott Vincent, former member of Iron Heads GC. In 2022 Vincent floated around on teams, having earned his spot on LIV Golf by winning the International Series England that year. Later that season, he’d win his first International Series Order of Merit, which landed him a spot on LIV Golf full time for the 2023 season, an opportunity he took full advantage of. He finished solo 4th in the final individual event of the season to jump into the lock zone and guarantee his spot for the 2024 season. Unfortunately at the conclusion of that season, he was relegated out of the league. Winning his second International Series Order of Merit in 2025 will see him re-join the league, this time as a wild card, for the 2026 season.
Yosuke Asaji is the perfect example of a player who got hot at the perfect time. In late October he recorded his best finish ever on the Asian Tour, a tie for second place at the International Series Philippines event. Two weeks later he’d win the Singapore Open, another International Series event. This jumped him to second place in the OOM and he was fortunate enough to hang on with just one event left, despite missing the cut there. The 32 year old Japan Golf Tour veteran will be faced with a tall task if he is to be competitive at this level, but he’s earned his chance to give it his all.
Read more about the final International Series event here:
Two Wild Card Spots Still to be Filled
The final two wild card spots will be decided at the Promotions Event, being played Jan 8-11 at Black Diamond Ranch in Florida. In prior seasons, the promotions event was hosted in the Middle-East and featured a spattering of Asian Tour Players, DP World Tour players, and the odd PGA Tour players. It’s unclear what that’s going to look like as the event is being hosted in the United States this year.
While on paper that might look like a decision that would greatly increase the level of player that signs up for the promotions event. After all, there should be very little risk to this. The event only requires $25 sign up fee and pays out $5,000 to anyone who completes just one round, compared to nearly $10,000 in entry fees for a full run through of PGA Tour Q-School. Advance to round 2 in the LIV Golf Promotions Event and you’re guaranteed $10,000.
The problem is that the PGA Tour will be issuing 12 month suspensions to anybody who plays in the event, member of the PGA Tour or not. That means if a college player, an amateur, a DP World Tour pro, an Asian Tour pro, or anyone else, plays in the Promotions Event, they are ineligible for any PGA Tour event or qualifier for 12 months. Due to the timing, this means they’d be ineligible for PGA Tour Q-School in the fall of 2026, further deterring aspiring pros.
All of this despite having no conflicting event on the schedule. On the bright side, if you’re a player that will be giving this a shot, your chances of making it through might be even better than they were previously!
There’s still three events left to be confirmed for 2026
The current schedule of confirmed events for next year looks like this:
- Feb 4-7 Riyadh Golf Club, Saudi Arabia
- Feb 12-25 The Grange Golf Club, Australia
- Mar 5-8 Hong Kong Golf Club, Hong Kong
- Mar 12-15 Sentosa Golf Club, Singapore
- Mar 19-22 The Club at Steyn City, South Africa
- Apr 16-19 Club de Golf Chapultepec, Mexico
- May 7-10 Trump National DC, USA
- Jun 4-7 Real Club Valderrama, Spain
- Jun 25-28 Bayou Oaks at City Park, USA
- Jul 23-26 JCB Golf & Country Club, Great Britain
- Aug 20-23 The Club at Chatham Hills, USA (Individual Championship)
It’s looking like they’ll return to a course in the Detroit area for the 2026 season, though it’s unclear where that fits on the schedule. The other two missing events, in all likelihood will be a return to Korea, with some potential new presenting sponsors for that event, and an event in the NY/NJ tri-state area. It’s unclear at this time if that event will be the Team Championship, or if the return to the Detroit area will host that again.
Just halfway through the season some really pivotal changes have been made to both the league as a whole, and some of the team rosters. Torque is looking like they’ll be one of the strongest competitors, and other weak spots that are yet to be filled are looking like opportunities for captains to take their rosters to new levels, to become true competitive teams in the league. Couple all of this with new interesting venues, a format change for likely world ranking points, and things are shaping up for an exciting second half to the LIV Golf offseason.
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