Dustin Johnson's 4Aces LIV Golf team could look significantly different after the end of this season with two members of the squad at risk of relegation.
Pat Perez and Harold Varner III have failed to deliver this season and are hovering precariously above the drop zone with just two individual events remaining, and the duo need a strong finish to the campaign to secure their LIV Golf future.
Perez and Varner were in 47th and 48th place respectively at the start the penultimate individual event of the season this weekend at The Greenbrier. Players who finish 49th or below in the 56-man league face being locked out of the league next year.
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The pair are looking over their shoulders at the likes of Scott Vincent, Kalle Samooja and Branden Grace, with the race to beat the drop over the final two weeks of the season sure to be volatile, with a top-10 finish from any player likely to be enough to lift them to safety given the congested nature of the standings.
Varner was an offseason acquisition for the 4Aces, joining in a trade that sent Peter Uihlein to the RangeGoats. But the American has failed to replicate his form from last season, when he finished seventh in the standings and claimed victory in Washington D.C.
Perez, meanwhile, finished in the Open Zone in 2023, finishing in 28th place. The top 24 secured their place on their teams, and a contract extension with the league, for the following season. Perez was a free agent without security, but team captain Johnson decided to keep him around for another year.
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The gamble has not paid off for Johnson and the 4Aces. They won the team order of merit title last season, but they have slumped to 10th in the standings with two events remaining before the season-ending Team Championship in Dallas next month.
Johnson's own form has slumped by the two-time major champion's high standards, sitting 13th in the standings after winning LIV's inaugural title in 2022 before a fifth-place finish last year. Patrick Reed, the fourth member of the squad, has also had a middling season and sits in 20th place.
While Reed is on track to finish in the Lock Zone and secure his placee on the 4Aces for next season, Perez and Varner do not have that luxury. They need a strong end to the season, to even have a chance of playing on LIV next season.
But if they finish in the Open Zone, their futures will lie in the hands of team captain Johnson, and after the struggles of this season, he could be minded to make big changes.
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