As the 35-year-old now nurses a sore elbow and fine tunes preparations away from public eyes, LIV’s top stars this week compete on the circuit’s toughest course.
Among them is Bryson DeChambeau, who overhauled a stuttering McIlroy to win last June’s US Open.
Those LIV contenders, who also include Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Tyrrell Hatton and Joaquin Niemann, will be desperate to disprove a widely held theory that the limited field 54-hole shotgun start team format played on LIV is detrimental to major chances.
Rahm was still a PGA Tour player when he won the 2023 Masters and believed his move to LIV could prove a catalyst for some form of reunification in men’s professional golf.
But as that wait continues, the Spaniard needs to show he can still hit heights that brought him that second major crown two years ago.
Rahm, last year’s LIV individual champion, has not won any of their four tournaments so far in 2025 but is second behind Niemann in the overall standings. The 30-year-old has finished top six in every event since being runner-up at February’s season opener in Riyadh.
But he is frustrated and requires an improvement in his scoring shots. “I have not played my best,” he recently admitted. “I haven’t felt as comfortable as I would like and it’s shown in my wedge game.
“If you want to contend and win and especially win majors, you need that part of your game.”
So his accuracy from 150 yards and in will be worth noting when LIV play this week at Doral. Donald Trump’s demanding and proven Miami test looks the sort of warm-up the breakaway circuit’s Augusta candidates require.
“Basically all the things that make a golf course hard are right here,” commented 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith, another potential LIV threat at Augusta.
Twelve months ago DeChambeau finished seven under par at Doral to tie for seventh, before shooting 65-73 to share the halfway lead of the Masters. He went on to tie for sixth, his best Augusta performance to date.
It was a display that laid the foundations for taking runner-up spoils at the following month’s US PGA Championship and then prevailing at Pinehurst to inflict McIlroy’s most painful defeat.
This year, though, the big-hitting American has only posted one top 10 on LIV. This, therefore, becomes an important week for DeChambeau to find form.
Koepka, who is the only other golfer to win a major while playing the LIV schedule – the 2023 US PGA – has long enjoyed a reputation for reserving his best form for grand slam events.
The five times major champion struggles for motivation in bog-standard tournaments. But there are signs that Koepka is stirring after finishing second at LIV’s most recent tournament in Singapore.
Surprisingly, he failed to crack the top 25 in last year’s majors, but he held the 54-hole lead at Augusta in 2023 before shooting 75 to lose to Rahm by four shots. It would not be a surprise to see him contend again this year.
