Shinnecock Hills has hosted plenty of carnage, but it has never seen a disruptor quite like this. Thirteen LIV Golf players—four U.S. Open champions, the league’s hottest winner in Bryson DeChambeau, and its dominant points leader in Jon Rahm—are walking into one of the most demanding venues in major championship golf with something bigger than a trophy on the line. For them, this week isn’t just about surviving the USGA’s toughest exam; it’s about proving that LIV’s stars, depth, and form can not only hang with the game’s establishment but hijack their national championship on their own turf.

What If A LIV Player Wins? Inside The U.S. Open Scenario Golf Can’t Ignore

Rahm vs. Bryson: The LIV Arms Race At Shinnecock

From a LIV perspective, the 2026 U.S. Open starts with Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau. Rahm arrives as the league’s season-long points leader, already stacking two wins this year along with a pile of runner-up finishes and top-10s that have him tracking toward a third straight individual title. DeChambeau is his closest pursuer in that race and just became the second player in LIV history to win back-to-back events, taking Singapore and South Africa in playoffs.

Both are already baked into U.S. Open history. Rahm’s first major came at Torrey Pines in 2021, closing birdie-birdie on 17 and 18 to win by one and become the first Spaniard to capture a U.S. Open. DeChambeau has won two of the last six editions of this championship, overpowering Winged Foot in 2020 and then surviving Pinehurst in 2024, making him one of just 23 players with multiple U.S. Open titles. A third this week would move him into a club that currently has only six names.

Dustin’s Last Free Pass And G-Mac’s Hard-Won Return

If Rahm and Bryson are LIV’s present tense, Dustin Johnson and Graeme McDowell are the long view. Johnson’s 10-year exemption from his 2016 win at Oakmont expires after this week, and he’s peaking at the right time—coming off a 4th-place finish in Korea and a T5 in Andalucía, backed by some of the best putting stats in the league. He also happens to own solo third from Shinnecock’s last U.S. Open in 2018, part of a five-year stretch where he posted top-four finishes in four of five U.S. Opens.

McDowell had to scrap just to get a seat at the table. His Pebble Beach exemption ran out in 2020, and only now—after repeated attempts—did he fight his way through final qualifying at Dallas Athletic Club. The 2010 champion was the first European to win a U.S. Open in 40 years and the first player from the UK to win a major since 1999; now he surfaces again with a recent career-low 63 in Hong Kong and a T8 in LIV to prove there’s still some major bite left.

The Under-The-Radar LIV Threats No One Should Ignore

Behind the big names is a layer of LIV players that could absolutely tilt this thing if Shinnecock plays to par-or-better as a winning score. Thirteen LIV golfers are in the field overall, representing seven countries and nine of the league’s 13 teams, with Legion XIII, Ripper GC, and Torque GC sending multiple players. Four of them—DeChambeau, Rahm, Johnson, and McDowell—already own this trophy, and winners of the last seven LIV events this season are all on property.

Tyrrell Hatton might be the most dangerous name that doesn’t lead a betting board. He rolls in off a wire-to-wire win at LIV Golf Andalucía, his second league title and his first start since becoming a first-time father, after posting a career-best T3 at the Masters earlier this year. He was T4 at last year’s U.S. Open at Oakmont and logged a T6 the last time the championship came to Shinnecock in 2018. That’s current form plus proven scar tissue in this environment.

Lucas Herbert brings similar momentum with a slightly different profile. He punched his ticket via LIV’s 2026 U.S. Open exemption after torching LIV Virginia at 24 under, and the numbers say his ball-striking should translate—top-10 in Strokes Gained Total and strong off the tee. Herbert hasn’t yet contended in a major, but his trajectory inside LIV suggests this week is his first realistic chance to do it.

Torque Power, Cam Smith’s Short-Game Show, And The Kids

Torque GC might quietly be the most interesting LIV team in this major. Joaquín Niemann, the youngest LIV captain, has already compiled a league-best eight titles, including a record five in 2025, and rode that dominance to claim both a U.S. Open exemption and an Open Championship spot via LIV’s season-long criteria. His teammate Carlos Ortiz parlayed a T4 at Oakmont last year into this start and has flashed serious ceiling this season, opening with a 60 in Hong Kong—just the sixth 60 or better in LIV history—before going 21 under for solo 8th in South Africa.

Then there’s Cameron Smith, the ultimate volatility play. The 2022 Open champion missed six straight cuts in majors before snapping back to life with a T7 at this year’s PGA Championship. He finished 4th at the 2023 U.S. Open at LACC and tied for 4th in his very first U.S. Open at Chambers Bay. Inside LIV, he leads the league in Strokes Gained Around The Green and ranks third in Strokes Gained Putting, the exact short-game combo you want when Shinnecock starts repelling approach shots into nasty runoffs, and par becomes gold.

The supporting cast has teeth, too. Laurie Canter is back in the U.S. Open via his 2025 DP World Tour Race to Dubai standing and recently posted a season-low 64 in South Africa. David Puig earned his way in through the world rankings after a T18 at the PGA Championship and is trending as one of LIV’s most efficient players off the tee and overall. Caleb Surratt, the 22-year-old Legion XIII rookie, survived a 6-for-1 playoff in Dallas for his first major start; Jon Rahm has called a debut at Shinnecock a “rude awakening,” but Surratt ranks near the top of LIV in putting and insists he’s not here for the sightseeing. Peter Uihlein, a former U.S. Amateur champion and ex–World No. 1 amateur, shot 67–66 to win medalist honors in qualifying and opened this LIV season with back-to-back podiums, reminding everyone his game still travels to big setups.

The Stat That Should Scare Everyone: LIV Has Owned Recent U.S. Opens

This is only the fourth U.S. Open played in the LIV era, but the track record is already loud. In 2023 at the Los Angeles Country Club, Cameron Smith finished 4th at six under and Dustin Johnson 10th at three under, with DeChambeau and Niemann also hovering on the first page of the board. In 2024 at Pinehurst, DeChambeau won at six under, Sergio García posted T12, and names like Hatton, Koepka, and Smith all lived inside the cutline. Last year at Oakmont, Hatton and Ortiz tied for 4th at three over, and Rahm finished T7 at four over, once again planting multiple LIV players inside the top 10.

Now LIV descends on Shinnecock with Rahm at the top of its points list, DeChambeau chasing a place in U.S. Open history, Johnson facing what could be his last automatic start, and a supporting cast stacked with recent winners and hungry qualifiers. If the past three years are any indication, the question this week isn’t whether a LIV player will get onto the leaderboard—it’s how many of them will still be there when Shinnecock has finished shredding everyone else.