LIV Golf has launched a transfer window.
Stars from other tours could join the Saudi-backed circuit while players now out of contract can search for a new team.
Graeme McDowell and Pat Perez are among the players now without a team contract in what is unchartered territory for the sport.
There will also be a mid-season transfer window in 2024 where further trades can be negotiated.
How does the LIV Golf transfer window work?
There will be three phases concerning how players move teams and which players are eligible to be traded.
Phase one concerns players who finished in the top 24 of the 2023 LIV Golf individual standings (Lock Zone) and whose deals expire this year, all of which are offered a one-year contract extension by their teams.
Peter Uihlein, Anirban Lahiri, Carlos Ortiz, Richard Bland and Scott Vincent are eligible for extensions but can turn them down and look for another team if they wish.
Players who placed 25th to 44th (Open Zone), and whose deals expire this year, can be re-signed or negotiated with another side. Teams are not obligated to re-sign these players in what is phase two of this transfer system.
McDowell, Perez, David Puig, Matt Jones, and Bernd Wiesberger are no longer under contract and have become free agents.
Teams with spare spots can recruit top-24 players who choose to be free agents, sign a player in the Open Zone, negotiate to sign contracted players or look for an external player who didn’t play in the 2023 LIV Golf season.
This could refer to players from the PGA Tour or the DP World Tour.
External players can be signed under LIV’s minimum criteria “to ensure the competitive integrity of the league.”
Trades need to be approved by both teams in question and there will also be a mid-season transfer window in 2024 where teams can negotiate trades and contract extensions.
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Phase three concerns LIV Golf Promotions which is the Saudi-funded circuit’s Q-school event. Three players who finish top of the leaderboard at this 72-hole event in Abu Dhabi will earn spots with LIV in 2024.
After LIV Golf Promotions, there will be another LIV Golf Draft where the top three players plus the winner of the Asian Tour’s International Series Rankings will be put into teams with an open spot.
Four spots will remain for these players once free agency has concluded.
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