The LIV Tour has plenty of big and small aspects that intrigue golf fans.
There’s the big purses -- $4 million to the winner of each event. There’s the small field -- just 52 players (13 four-man teams) at each event. There’s the big -- an added $2.5 million in prize money split between the top three teams at each event. There’s the small -- just 54 holes in each tournament compared with 72 holes for other professional tournaments.
But the largest "big" the LIV Tour has for each event is the miles that tour pros put on between each site.
Don’t believe us? Well, let’s take a glance at the early sites for the LIV Tour.
They opened the 2024 season in Mayakoba, Mexico.
Players heading to Mexico started off from a wide variety of destinations to start the season so we won’t calculate those distances.
Then came a 2,800-mile jaunt up to Las Vegas for Week 2.
Now it’s off another 8,000 or so miles to this week’s event in Saudi Arabia.
Next week: Another 4,400 miles to Hong Kong.
Then they will travel … well, you get the picture.
It’s a whole lot of travel time. If these were regular travelers, they would be accumulating frequent flier miles in record numbers. And don’t get us started on how many time zones they will hit.
But there is a silver lining.
With LIV doling out money right and left, even if you’re dead last each week you’ll pocket $120,000 each time you tee it off. Finish last in all 12 events, you’ll still earn $1.4 million.
But enough of our tangent about the big and small of the LIV Tour.
Let’s turn our attention to this week’s stop, the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in Saudi Arabia.
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LIV Tour Jeddah, Saudi Arabia odds
Here are the odds to win the LIV Tour event in Saudi Arabia as of Wednesday morning:
- Jon Rahm +550
- Dustin Johnson +900
- Joaquin Niemann +1100
- Brooks Koepka +1100
- Talor Gooch +1200
- Tyrrell Hatton +1400
- Cameron Smith +1600
- Bryson DeChambeau +1600
- Sergio Garcia +2200
- Adrian Meronk +2500
- Louis Oosthuizen +2500
- Abraham Ancer +3000
- Paul Casey +3000
- Dean Burmester +3000
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Brooks Koepka odds to win LIV Jeddah
If you’re a golf fan, you know Brooks Koepka can certainly go back-to-back when it comes to returning to the scene of a victory the previous year.
That’s turning out to be no different on the LIV Tour.
Koepka, who is tied for third on odds boards at +1100, won this event in 2023, as well as in 2022.
Looking back on his PGA Tour, he won back-to-back majors two times -- the 2017 and 2018 U.S. Open and the 2018 and 2019 PGA Championship.
This is his third year on the LIV Tour and he is getting more and more comfortable.
He won this event in his first season for his only victory that year.
Last year he won twice, including this event, so his game is fitting in nicely in his current climes on LIV.
He’s played the first two events of 2024 with seventh and 13th place finishes.
Not exactly what we’ve come to expect from Koepka and we’re figuring that changes this week and he goes three-for-three in Saudi Arabia.
LIV Jeddah prediction: Talor Gooch still at good value
Talor Gooch has to have good memories here as he lost in a playoff to Koepka last year.
At +1200 this week he’s still a little under the radar and we’re trying to figure out why.
He started 2024 with a 15th-place finish at Mayakoba before turning up his game and rallying to finish second at the last event in Las Vegas.
He’s coming into this event on a roll with rounds of 66, 66 and 67 in Las Vegas and had that great success here last year with an even-par round, a six-under-par round and an eight-under-par final round that gave him a spot in the playoff.
He also won three times last season so he’s proving he’s one of the players to beat week in and week out.
We can’t ask for much more positivity coming into an event.
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LIV Golf Jeddah odds: Dustin Johnson on a roll
Dustin Johnson, at +900 this week, is coming off a victory in Las Vegas in the most recent LIV event.
Add in a T-5 at the season-opening Mayakoba event and he’s on a roll.
Johnson wound up fifth in the 2023 player standings. He had seven top 10s last year but only one victory while the four players above him had multiple wins.
He’s gotten off to a good start to move up in the rankings in 2024 (he’s atop the ranking after two weeks) and there’s no reason for him to let off the gas.
LIV Golf Jeddah: Not time to bet on Jon Rahm ... yet
Jon Rahm is 0-for-2 when it comes to starts on the LIV Tour.
Frankly, we expected at least one win, and he should have had it as the wheels came off on the 53rd hole of the season-opener.
He finished bogey-bogey to miss out on a possible win or at least a spot in the playoff won by Joaquin Niemann over Sergio Garcia.
Then came an eighth-place finish in Las Vegas.
With Rahm being favored this week, at +500 in a lot of betting sites, the sportsbooks are covering themselves for when/if Rahm gets in a groove.
Face it, he’s going to win. It’s just a matter of when and how many times.
We just don’t think it’s going to be this week.