LIV Golf did not need Shinnecock Hills to become another referendum, but the U.S. Open has a way of making weaknesses public.
Wyndham Clark will begin Sunday six shots clear at the top of the championship, with Scottie Scheffler, Sahith Theegala, Tom Kim and Sam Stevens forming the nearest chase. That is the title picture. The awkward part for LIV is that, after bringing 13 players into the week, none of its biggest names are part of it.
A major week that got away early
The bare numbers are damaging enough. Golf Digest reported that six of LIV’s 13 U.S. Open entrants made the cut, but that none had been better than tied 35th at the end of Friday, when Clark had already taken command at seven under. The most recognisable names were gone before the weekend properly started.
Bryson DeChambeau missed the cut at five over. Jon Rahm, who arrived at Shinnecock as LIV’s points leader and one of the obvious major threats, also missed out at six over. Brooks Koepka was no longer a LIV player this season, but for LIV’s current core the absence of DeChambeau and Rahm from the weekend mattered.
ReadGolf had already looked at why DeChambeau’s Shinnecock exit changed the texture of the U.S. Open. Taken on its own, that was a form story. Set against the wider LIV board, it feels more structural.
Niemann gave the week fight, but not a Sunday charge
Joaquin Niemann at least gave LIV a response. His first-round 78 was bent out of shape by a two-shot penalty after a club-throwing incident at the sixth, but he answered with a second-round 65 to make the cut. That was some recovery, and it stopped his week being remembered only for the rule breach.
Even so, the wider point remains. A comeback to reach the weekend is not the same as a contender forcing his way into the final act. ReadGolf covered how Niemann turned his U.S. Open penalty into a cut-making fightback, but by Sunday the championship’s centre of gravity was elsewhere.
That is the piece LIV could not find at Shinnecock: a player close enough to Clark to make the league part of the winning conversation.
The timing makes it harder to shrug off
One poor major week does not define a league. LIV players have produced major moments before, from Koepka’s 2023 PGA Championship to DeChambeau’s 2024 U.S. Open. Rahm was also runner-up at this year’s PGA Championship and Tyrrell Hatton was third at the Masters, so this is not a simple question of whether the players are good enough.
But timing matters. Golf Digest has reported in recent weeks that representatives for multiple LIV players have explored possible PGA Tour pathways, while the league continues to face questions over its long-term funding and shape. In that environment, major-championship evidence carries extra weight.
Sunday at Shinnecock is now Clark’s to control, with Scheffler carrying the most obvious superstar threat and the rest of the field needing something close to a perfect card. ReadGolf’s look at Clark’s record-money U.S. Open Sunday explains the pressure at the top of the board. LIV’s problem is that its players are largely watching that pressure from outside the frame.
That does not settle the league’s future. It does, however, make Shinnecock another uncomfortable major week in a season when LIV badly needed competitive proof rather than another explanation.
