Getty Image / Isaiah Vazquez
Bubba Watson‘s days on the LIV Golf tour appear to be coming to an end after finishing in 53rd place this season which is part of what is called ‘The Drop Zone.’
The 2-time Masters champion (2012, 2014) had an off chance of saving himself if he came out and shot low scores in Chicago at the LIV Golf individual championship but Bubba Watson didn’t have it in him. He fired off scores of +3 and +6 in his first two rounds and was nine over heading into Sunday. He was able to regain some strokes and shot -5 on Sunday to finish at +4 for LIV Golf Chicago which put him in a tie for 42nd place and landed him in The Drop Zone.
LIV Golf made it official with this graphic which they shared to X on Sunday evening:
While his fate appears to be sealed, Bubba has a long shot at remaining on the LIV Golf tour for the 2025 season. As the captain of LIV Golf’s RangeGoats team, Bubba can now submit a “business case” to LIV Golf requesting to stay in the league. It must (1) be convincing enough for LIV to continue to commit millions and (2) the “business case” must also be approved by the board of the RangeGoats team.
In theory, most golfers relegated from LIV Golf would compete in the 10 designated events on the Asian Tour in order to earn promotion back to LIV Golf but it’s unclear what will happen with Bubba Watson. He is 45 years old, he’s earned nearly $50 million in tournaments in his career, underwent a meniscus tear not too long ago requiring a special exemption, and it remains to be seen if he wants to go back to grinding on lesser tours in order to regain promotion to LIV.
LIV Golf will also hold their own version of qualifying school in the offseason this year so that would be another route for Bubba Watson but some on X, formerly known as Twitter, are already speculating if Bubba will simply retire at this point:
Assuming Bubba doesn’t get picked up by someone (I don’t know if he will or how signing players goes) I wonder what he does.
Does he want to play anymore? If so, is he really going to grind on the Asian Tour? He doesn’t have many other options.
Or does he retire. https://t.co/2nqt69ugzg
— Monday Q Info (@acaseofthegolf1) September 16, 2024
I don’t think anyone in the golf world would be shocked to see Bubba Watson hang up his golf shoes. It is unclear how much money Bubba would be walking away from if he didn’t seek to regain his LIV Golf Tour status, or if there’s nothing on the table at all, but that certainly seems like it will be a major factor in whatever decision is made in the days ahead.
Others being relegated include former Liberty University golfer Kieran Vincent who won the 2023 International Series Vietnam, 2-time PGA Tour winner Branden Grace, and Scott Vincent of Zimbabwe.