The Waiting Game

Max Rottluff is a patient guy, but now that patience was really being put to the test.

LIV Golf brings three reserve players to each event in case a player in the field withdraws. This season, Rottluff, a 32-year-old German, completed LIV’s reserve trio with higher-ranked John Catlin and Ollie Schniederjans. Reserve players are paid a relatively modest amount to travel to each LIV event, prepare for the tournament, and await a withdrawal. Rottluff had done this six times without success when he got a call minutes before the start of the opening round last month at LIV Dallas. (Because there is a four-man team format at every event, LIV has players on standby. The call might come before any of the three rounds.) He had turned down a start at an event in Europe hoping for this moment. His gamble had paid off. 

Rottluff lost his European Challenge Tour status (now Hotel Planner Tour) at the end of 2022, after playing in 19 events around Europe. It marked the second consecutive year he had lost status on a high-level development tour, having burned out at the end of the Korn Ferry Tour’s megaseason the previous year. He had been away from his wife, Chaney, a doctor in residency at the time, and his 2-year-old daughter, Anna Leigh, for most of the season. No surprise, but the former ASU first-team All-American was questioning his place in the game. 

“My wife and I have always said it doesn't matter whether you're in any of the Springfields in the U.S., or if you're in Spain, or anywhere,” Rottluff says. “You're not there. You're not at home. All of a sudden you start talking about jet lag and my wife's working. Yeah, we can text and whatnot a little bit, but not to the extent that you obviously would like to be involved as a father and husband.”

At the end of 2022, Rottluff traveled to Arizona to play with Jon Rahm, his former college teammate. Rahm was nearly at the height of his powers, having just won in Dubai and ranked in the top five in the world. After a match at Silverleaf Golf Club in Scottsdale, Rahm’s home course, Rottluff’s career in golf began to crystalize. 

“He beat me by, like, one shot,” Rottluff says. “I was like, that’s respectable. I mean, it was his home course. He was playing so good. Just incredible. I was like, maybe I shouldn’t hang it up.”

Rottluff returned to Baltimore, where he lived at the time, and decided it was time to refocus. His sponsors continued to back him, and Chaney was unwavering in her support of his globe-trotting schedule. 

He went to Dubai for the first Challenge Tour event of the 2023 season, posted a course-record 63 in the third round, and won by a shot. He proved he could excel, and the breakthrough validated his decision to return to Europe.

He won again four months later in Sweden, earning a promotion to the DP World Tour in 2024. Rottluff was accustomed to traveling, but this schedule gave him a new appreciation of the world: India, Qatar, Singapore, South Africa, Mauritius, with staple tournaments across Europe and a couple of stateside PGA Tour events in between. 

“I love traveling all over Asia,” he says. “I think I’m very low-maintenance and probably look at things a little differently than the average player you encounter in the U.S.”

Rottluff tied for 16th at the Hero Indian Open and was T-9 at the British Masters, but he narrowly lost full DPWT status. 

LIV hosted its qualifying event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in December 2024. Rottluff was able to use what remained of his DPWT status to get into the event. While only the winner of the four-round tournament would earn a roster spot with LIV, the next 10 players and ties would earn status in the International Series, another pathway to LIV Golf.  

Rottluff was intrigued. He had been told Riyadh was like Dubai 20 years ago. He was a curious traveler and a golfer determined to find a tour on which to earn a living. The coffee and the hospitality of Saudi Arabia impressed him, and Riyadh Golf Club suited his eye. The LIV Promotions format, which featured a 93-player field, had a cut after both the first and second rounds, reducing the field to 20 players. The survivors played 36 holes on the third day for a coveted roster spot. At the end of the marathon, Rottluff finished seventh, earning a spot in the International Series. 

The first International Series event was played in Gurugam, India, at DLF Golf and Country Club. Rottluff had played a DPWT event there the previous year. His love of the course showed in his scores. He was in contention after three days with Schniederjans, Bryson DeChambeau and Joaquinn Niemann. (DeChambeau and Niemann were playing to accumulate World Ranking points.) After three rounds, Rottluff also impressed someone important: he was informed by his manager that LIV had offered him a reserve spot for LIV Riyadh. He had just been there for the qualifier. Another adventure. Of course he’d go. 

Rottluff closed the tournament in India poorly, finishing T-21, but he now had another opportunity. The following week, he was at Riyadh Golf Club where LIV Golf’s new CEO, Scott O’Neil, held a player meeting. O’Neil addressed all the players, including Rottluff. 

“I was like, this is awesome,” he says. “This is what I want to be a part of. If I wasn’t playing golf, I’d want to be Scott’s assistant or something.” 

Rottluff says the player meeting was more intimate than any other tour gathering he had been a part of. All the players were there. O’Neil emphasized the path forward was to entertain through great golf and set aside animosity between tours and players.

“Let’s not get caught up in the bullshit of, you know, somebody said this about me, somebody said that,” Rottluff says of O’Neil’s message. “No, let’s just play golf. You guys are fantastic golfers. Go play fantastic golf.” 

At the beginning of a tournament week, each LIV team captain ranks reserve players in preferential order. When a rostered player withdraws, the captain’s ranking determines who fills the spot. Rottluff has always been close with fellow countryman Martin Kaymer, captain of the Cleeks, and Rahm, captain of Legion XIII. But you could hardly blame a reserve player for sending a bottle of fine wine to a captain at dinner. 

“I’m not buying beer for the captains,” Rottluff says with a laugh. “As a captain, there is obviously the piece of, hey, this is a player who's got the physicality or the potential to really add value on the golf side of things. And then there is the personality side of it. Like, do you want to be around this person? And I mean, there are plenty of guys you don't want to be sitting at the lunch table or at the dinner table with.”

Rottluff says the compensation for being a reserve is nothing compared to the prize money that could be earned by being in the field, but it’s “good enough.” Reserves have to bring their own caddie and be ready for the shotgun start at a moment's notice. They want to be ready to succeed should their opportunity arise, but they also don’t want to get in the way of players in the field. That makes preparation difficult.

Each team has its own schedule. Some teams travel together, have team functions, eat meals together, and play practice rounds together. Reserves are more independent, often practicing on their own. On tournament days, Rottluff warms up well before the players already in the field so he doesn’t take up a spot on the range. Then he eats lunch and waits.

He watched from the sideline as reserves got into events in Mexico and Korea. Six times he showed up to LIV tournaments hoping for the call but didn’t get in. Having only played three International Series tournaments in six months, Rottluff needed competition.

When he was asked to be an alternate at Maridoe Golf Club outside Dallas, Rottluff was debating whether to travel to France to play on the Hotel Planner Tour. Then he heard LIV golfer Matt Wolff was injured, and he knew Catlin had elected to play in the DPWT’s Italian Open. That improved his chances of being ranked first among the 13 team captains. Rottluff thought about how disappointed he would be if another reserve got in while he was in France. Then there was his family, who was only a few hours south in San Antonio. He’d be able to stay in his home state, and if he got in the tournament, Chaney, Anna Leigh, and the newest Rottluff, 4-month-old Maya, could watch him play for life-changing money. That helped sway the decision. 

The week of LIV Dallas played out as the other LIV events had leading up to Round 1. Rottluff and his caddie learned the course and practiced during the pro-am. On Friday, Rottluff showed up early, spent time around the practice area and went to lunch. Soon after, players were heading for their carts and leaving for their assigned holes. That’s when the call came. 

“I hung up and I told my caddie, ‘There's a chance we might be going in,’” Rottluff says. “And I didn't even know for which team or which player. And then they're like, hey, it's go-time.”

Freddie Kjettrup had withdrawn. Rottluff would be playing in his Kjettrup’s place for Kaymer’s Cleeks. There was a mad dash to find a pin sheet and a cart so Rottluff could get to the 11th hole, a 184-yard par-3. It all happened so fast. He barely had time to be nervous. 

“Absolute whirlwind,” Rottluff says. “Getting to play and just going from going in for lunch to standing on the tee box and playing your first LIV event…pretty wild.”

Rottluff made par on his first hole, but doubled his fifth and struggled in the treacherous rough throughout the round. He posted a 6-over 78. With less uncertainty leading up to Round 2, he bounced back with six birdies and a 2-under 70. He closed with a disappointing three-over 75, finishing tied for 37th. But that came with $140,333, the largest check of his career. (The Cleeks finished out of the money in the team event.)

“I didn't necessarily execute all the shots the way I know I'm capable of, but again, I think it was a respectful first week,” Rottluff says. “I think everybody who was there would agree with that. Ultimately, there's always that part of you that wants to do better, especially when you get that opportunity, you want to swing for the fences and do all that. I'm happy with the game.”

Anna Leigh turns 5 this month. She was on hand to watch her dad earn the largest check of his career. 

“Pretty crazy how time flies,” Rottluff says. “Pretty special for them to see their first LIV event, experience it, and then obviously for me to be playing while they're in attendance. That was really sweet.”

Rottluff is in Spain this week, on standby at Valderama for LIV Andalucia. He has gotten a taste. If he gets the call, this time he’ll be even more ready.