Out of the Rough: LIV Golf UK

After being off for six weeks, the LIV Golf Tour is back in action for this week’s LIV Golf UK.

Those representing the LIV Golf Tour at last week’s The Open Championship will take a quick hour-and-45-minute track south to JCB Golf and Country Club in Rocester, England.

This week’s host, the JCB Golf and Country Club also played host to this event a season ago and will play host for a third consecutive season.

JCB Golf and Country Club is in Rocester, United Kingdom.

Including this week, there are just five events left in the 2026 LIV Golf schedule, including the end-of-the-season LIV Golf Michigan Team Championship.

The Field

Fifteen members of LIV Golf Tour teed it up last week at The Open, all of which will be making the trip down to Rocester for this week’s LIV Golf UK.

Joaquin Niemann comes in as the defending champion, holding off second place Bubba Watson by three strokes. Niemann also won LIV Golf Korea two starts ago.

Jon Rahm won the 2024 edition of this event. He also won LIV Golf South Africa and LIV Golf Singapore earlier this season.

Rahm will look to continue his stranglehold on the season long standings, as he currently leads the standings over second play Bryson DeChambeau by 284.18 points.

4Aces GC (Dustin Johnson, Anthony Kim, Thomas Pieters and Thomas Detry) continue to pace the team standings with 140 points. Legion XIII (Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Caleb Surratt and Tom McKibbin) trail by 22 points.

The Course

The JCB Golf & Country Club is one of England’s newest golf courses, having been opened in 2018.

It was the work of Lord Bamford and Robin Hiseman and in its short history has already hosted events on the Rose Ladies Series, the Legends Tour and LIV Golf.

The location is ideal for the course as it sits in the middle of England, crafted from established woodland and farmers’ fields. The ground was not easy to work with, with the clay-based soil offering drainage problems. In the end, 400,000 cubic-meters of earth was moved to produce the course

The course, owned by global construction company JCB and constructed on the grounds of its headquarters, plays as a par-72 at 7,308 yards.

Although the idea was to not only construct a golf course to help with marketing, development of the brand and a place to bring clients, the company still wanted to develop a world-class golf facility - and that they did.

Off-the-tee, golfers will be welcomed by wide-fairways that are lined with tall fescue but due to their width, won’t be brought into play unless a tee-shot is extremely wild.

Being a new course, the length of today’s game was built in, as the tips don’t feel pushed back or added like most professional venues, but one’s built into the course from the jump.

There are a number of lakes and streams throughout the course that do come into play.

There are plenty of scoring opportunities on this course but there is risk involved in nearly every shot. As with most Hiseman designs, there are safer routes to attack this golf course, but the scoring opportunities will not come as easily.

Out-of-the-gate, the par-four first hole has water on the left affecting both the tee shot and the approach into the green.

The third is a severely doglegged and the par-three ninth plays sharply downhill to a green located in what was once an arboretum.

The par-four 12th has a stream in play with a green protected by a stone wall.

The par-three 17th is the course’s signature hole. It plays well over 200-yards into an island green.

The Weather

As of the time of writing this, there is just a ten-percent chance of precipitation on Thursday and a five-percent chance on Friday. Chances increase to 25-percent for both Saturday and Sunday. Temperatures will be at their highest on Thursday at 77-degrees before dipping to 76-degrees degrees on Friday. Temperatures will continue to fall into Saturday as it is set for 73-degrees and Sunday 69-degrees. Winds will be the lowest on Thursday at eight miles-per-hour before jumping to 12 miles-per-hour on Friday. Winds will continue to climb as Saturday calls for 13 miles-per-hour oand 14 miles-per-hour on Sunday.

Key Stats

• Greens in Regulation Percentage (GIR%)

• Putting Average

• Average Driving Distance

• Scrambling

• Birdie or Better Percentage

Betting Card

Victor Perez (+2500)

We saw Perez last week at The Open Championship where he placed T28th. Prior to that he placed T9th at the Genesis Scottish Open and T9th at the BMW International Open on the DP World Tour. He placed 16th in his latest outing on the LIV Golf Tour at LIV Golf Andalucia. On Tour he is currently 12th in birdie-or-better percentage, 16th in GIR%, 18th in average driving distance, 29th in scrambling and 41st in putting average. As this is his first year on LIV Golf Tour, he’ll be making his debut here this week.

Talor Gooch (+3300)

Across the last two seasons at the JCB Golf & Country Club and LIV Golf UK, Gooch has been great here. He placed fourth a season ago and sixth in 2024. He last played at LIV Golf Andalucia where he placed 16th. He also placed second at LIV Golf Korea. On Tour, Gooch is currently 13th in scrambling, 14th in birdie-or-better percentage, 17th in putting average, 26th in GIR% and 42nd in average driving distance. 

Caleb Surratt (+9000)

My longshot this week is Surratt. On the LIV Golf Tour, Surratt is currently 16th in average driving distance, 21st in putting average, 27th in birdie-or-better percentage, 38th in scrambling and 44th in GIR%. Surratt played last week at The Open Championship where he missed the cut. He did place T63rd at the U.S. Open as well. He placed 49th at LIV Golf Andalucia in his latest outing on Tour. He also placed third at this event a season ago and 41st in 2024.