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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.<\/p>\n
Among them is Bryson DeChambeau, who overhauled a stuttering McIlroy to win last June’s US Open.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“If you want to contend and win and especially win majors, you need that part of your game.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n