LIV Golf arrived into the world of golf with a whimper, followed by a bang. After initial sniggers from critics and golfers, the pay cheques were revealed for being involved in the tour and the masses were quickly silenced as some of the biggest golfers in the world left the traditional tours to join up with the Saudi-led project.
The first event, a curtain raiser at London’s Centurion Club, was free-to-air on YouTube, with the 12 teams battling it out for a prize pot exceeding $4 million.
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With the hype train still running, there’s plenty more golfers being linked with an elope to Greg Norman’s new tour, and we’ll name the ones that have moved, have been rumoured to move and the players that’ll never move.
Players Already At LIV Golf
The field was recently announced for the second event in LIV Golf’s history and goes as follows (with team names included):
4 Aces
Dustin Johnson
Patrick Reed
Taylor Gooch
Pat Perez
Cleeks
Martin Kaymer
Laurie Canter
David Puig (A)
Graeme McDowell
Crushers
Bryson Dechambeau
Paul Casey
Shaun Norris
Charles Howell III
Fireballs
Sergio Garcia
Abraham Ancer
Carlos Ortiz
Eugenio Chacarra
Hy Flyers
Phil Mickelson
Bernd Wiesberger
Matthew Wolff
Justin Harding
Iron Heads
Kevin Na
Sadom Kaewkanjana
Phachara Khongwatmai
Scott Vincent
Majesticks
Lee Westwood
Ian Poulter
Sam Horsfield
Henrik Stenson
Niblicks
Hudson Swafford
Turk Pettit
James Piot
Peter Uihlein
Punch
Wade Ormsby
Matt Jones
Travis Smyth
Jediah Morgan
Smash
Brooks Koepka
Chase Koepka
Jason Kokrak
Richard Bland
Stinger
Louis Oosthuizen
Hennie Du Plessis
Branden Grace
Charl Schwartzel
Torque
Hideto Tanihara
Yuki Inamori
Ryosuke Kinoshita
Jinichiro Kozuma
Pablo Larrazabal, Oliver Bekker and JC Ritchie have only made appearances at the first LIV Golf event, and will miss out this weekend again. Ratchanon Chantananuwat, the youngest golfer to ever win on a professionally recognised tour, and Oliver Fisher are also set to miss out.
Players Who Could Move To LIV Golf
An announcement is expected to be made this week from the tournament that twice-Masters champion Bubba Watson is joining the tour. LIV CEO Greg Norman reportedly will be kick-starting his next event with a big announcement of new players.
This year’s Champion Golfer, Cameron Smith, was questioned about whether his allegiances still lied with the tour, and unfortunately for the bosses at the PGA, he wasn’t as dismissive as they’d liked. “I don’t know, mate. My team around me worries about all that stuff, I’m here to win golf tournaments,” was the response in his post-win press conference.
Rumours of Henrik Stenson joining were confirmed when the Ryder Cup removed him as captain of Team Europe. Hideki Matsuyama is also allegedly set to make the move, after being offered a sum of $400 million to sign on in the competition. The Japanese star bizarrely crashed out of the PGA Tour’s 3M Open, getting a quadruple bogey after finding the water hazard three times in a row.
Players Who Will Not Be Leaving For LIV Golf
As of today, there are many players who have publicly stated their intentions to remain on the traditional tours. Among the top of the game, Rory McIlroy takes a lead role, criticising those who leave for the new tournament as well as the tournament itself, saying “There’s no room in the golf world for LIV.”
Alongside the Northern Irishman is Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth, Scottie Scheffler, Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa and Will Zalatoris. Norway’s Viktor Hovland also commented to a publication in his homeland that he doesn’t intend to play in any LIV Golf events.
This group is subject to change as ‘The Shark’ Norman attempts to find their number to get them to join his competition.
*18+ | BeGambleAware
