LIV Golf hold playoff BEFORE Singapore event

Don’t worry, there’s method to LIV Golf’s madness…

It’s not often a playoff golf tournament begins with a playoff, but if there’s one thing we know about LIV Golf, it’s that they’re not afraid to rip up the conventions book.

With Iron Heads GC’s Jinichiro Kozuma out of action indefinitely with injury, a spot on Kevin Na’s team has opened up for the foreseeable future.

So far, Na has selected a player from LIV Golf’s list of reserves, with mixed results. In the season-opener in Riyadh, Wade Ormsby stepped up and finished above all three of his new teammates in a tie for 25th. Ormsby returned for the Adelaide event in his homeland, but wasn’t far off finishing dead last in 50th. And last time out in Hong Kong, it was Ollie Schniederjans who took the spot, though he also struggled and finished tied-42nd.

With no known return date for Kozuma, the league created a unique qualifying process for the four on-site reserves at Sentosa to play their way onto the Iron Heads team when the the LIV Golf Singapore event gets underway on Friday.

This is how the playoff format was pitched to Ormsby, Schniederjans, John Catlin and Kalle Samooja:

• After six holes, the player with the highest stroke play score is eliminated. If two or more players are tied for the highest score, they continue until a highest score of those players is determined and that player is eliminated.

• After 12 holes, of those remaining players, the one with the highest stroke play score is eliminated. If there is a tie for highest score after 12 holes, those players continue until a highest score is determined and that player is eliminated.

• The two remaining players play the final six holes of stroke play to determine winner. If they are tied after 18 holes, they will continue in a sudden death playoff until a winner is determined.

It certainly surprised Catlin – a three-time DP World Tour winner who played six LIV events last year as a reserve – who said he “loved having the chance” to earn a spot on the Iron Heads, but admitted he “was not ready for LIV to shake things up”.

He loved it even more when he came out on top.

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Samooja was the first to fall when he was 3-over through six holes, before Schniederjans left the process at the 12th on the same score. That left Ormsby and Catlin to battle over the last six holes, and ultimately the American triumphed when his opponent could only manage a bogey at 18.

“It was a few times last year where it was like I was battling to the end, and I didn’t quite get it done in a couple of the International Series events,” Catlin added.

“Unfortunately, it ended up costing me a LIV spot, so I’m not going to let that happen again. I’m going to step on people’s necks, basically. I’ve got to get this done; it’s just that simple.”

Catlin does, though, have some sympathy for his fellow reserves.

“We want to play, we put a lot of work in,” he added. “We’re basically signed to be there for all three days now. That actually makes it a little bit harder mentally because you have to be there watching all this stuff happen, and you want to be a part of it.

“It’s difficult. I just wanted a chance. I just wanted another chance to show what I can do.”

And now he does – in the most unique circumstances imaginable.