It was teased and teased and finally announced that YouTube’s most popular golfer signed with LIV Golf.
Rick Shiels revealed he joined as an ambassador with the Saudi-funded league on January 24, 2025 to produce content with the players on the 54-man roster.
From being an assistant at Mere Golf Club in Knutsford to teaching at Trafford Golf Centre in Manchester, Shiels has built a vast YouTube platform which has amassed almost three million subscribers.
More people follow Shiels on social media than many of tour golf’s biggest stars. Shiels has produced videos on instruction, club reviews, world-class golf courses and playing with world-class players.
The Manchester man revealed on his own podcast that this move had been in the works for a while and that he’d lost subscribers since the announcement of his association with LIV Golf. The league has received intense scrutiny since its birth in 2022 with its links to the Saudi regime and the human rights issues that surround it.
Let’s take a closer look at what Shiels will be producing with LIV Golf in 2025.
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Rick Shiels: LIV role explained in 2025
As revealed in a video on social media, Shiels revealed that he will be doing 10-shot challenges with some of the best players on the LIV Golf roster, with the video implying Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka and Cameron Smith would be involved.
A 10-shot challenge is when Shiels starts at 10-under and the tour players start on level par. The winner finishes with the lowest score and he has done this challenge before with Bryson DeChambeau, Rickie Fowler, Tommy Fleetwood, Adam Scott, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Sergio Garcia.
There will be a 10-shot challenge at each LIV Golf event. Shiels also said he’d be hosting two-on-two matches with two players taken from each LIV Golf team. Also, Shiels will be doing a ‘Break 75’ challenge at each LIV venue in 2025 which is exactly what it says on the tin: he will try and break 75.
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That is also a regular feature he has done on his YouTube channel at golf courses such as Royal Birkdale, Royal Liverpool, North Berwick, TPC Sawgrass, and Turnberry. Shiels also said there will be five-man scrambles and coaching content that will all appear on his YouTube channel which has over 2,900,000 subscribers
As well as video content, Shiels will also host more podcasts on the Rick Shiels Golf Show. He has recorded a chat with former PGA Tour and DP World Tour star Paul Casey and Anthony Kim, a player who signed for LIV from the wilderness having been a promising young talent on the PGA Tour over a decade ago.
Shiels’ first video after signing his LIV deal was a six-hole challenge featuring Rahm and Koepka where he played three holes with each player, beginning on three-under-par and the pair had to accumulatively chase him down.
He begun his Break 75 tenure with LIV Golf at Riyadh Golf Club at the start of February. In terms of podcasts, Shiels got underway by speaking to Paul Casey and Joaquin Niemann, two stars of the LIV Golf League.
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