LIV Golf Fills Roster Ahead of Season 5, But Questions on Star Power Remain
With its fifth season set to begin next month, LIV Golf is finalizing its roster, reportedly adding PGA Tour winner Thomas Detry and young Australian professional Elvis Smylie. However, these signings highlight the league's current challenge: replenishing depth while grappling with the high-profile loss of foundational star Brooks Koepka.
According to The Times, the 57th-ranked Detry—who won the 2025 Waste Management Phoenix Open—will join the 4Aces GC team captained by Dustin Johnson. Smylie, 23, is expected to join the all-Australian Ripper GC. These additions follow other offseason moves, including the return of Laurie Canter and the promotion of players from the Asian Tour's International Series.
While these signings bolster the league's middle tier, they underscore a shift from LIV's initial strategy of acquiring top-tier, marketable stars. The departure of Koepka, one of the league's few active major champions, has created a significant competitive and promotional void. This loss has also increased the leverage of remaining headliners, most notably Bryson DeChambeau, who has publicly expressed that "things have got to change" within LIV and has not yet committed to a contract extension beyond 2026.
The Koepka saga continues to ripple through professional golf. Rory McIlroy has stated he would welcome Koepka back to the PGA Tour, but acknowledged the complex legal and precedential hurdles such a return would face, given the ongoing tensions between the tours.
As LIV prepares to tee off in Riyadh on February 4th, adopting a 72-hole format in a bid for world ranking points, the league's narrative is at a crossroads. It has established itself as a permanent fixture with a full roster and a team structure, but its ability to attract or retain the game's very elite—the "needle movers"—remains its most pressing, unanswered question for Season 5 and beyond.
