LIV Golf announced its 12-man roster for the fledgling league’s second season on Monday night, making the reported signings of Thomas Pieters, Danny Lee, Dean Burmester and Brendan Steele official.
After the Saudi-funded rival to the PGA Tour debuted its 2022 “Invitational Series” season, LIV locked in 48 golfers for its expanded second campaign, which begins this weekend at Mayakoba Resort’s El Camaleon Golf Course in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
Pieters, a Belgian who is No. 35 in the Official World Golf Ranking this week, joined Bubba Watson’s team, the RangeGoats. Pieters, who primarily played on the DP World Tour, recently took to Twitter for a PGA Tour farewell after failing to qualify for last week’s Genesis Invitational.
“Sad to miss my favorite tournament of the year. Like 34 in the world I just couldn’t make the @PGATOUR,” Pieters wrote.
Lee, from New Zealand, will be on the Iron Heads, captained by Kevin Na. Burmester filled in the all-South African team, Stinger, led by Louis Oosthuizen.
Steele joined the HyFlyers, captained by six-time major champion Phil Mickelson, whose commitment to LIV last season served as a catalyst for other top names to follow suit.
A team will have three co-captains. Majesticks have Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood from England and Henrik Stenson from Sweden working together, with the list rounded out by Englishman Sam Horsfield.
Other teams include Torque, a group with a South American bent, captained by Chilean up-and-comer Joaquin Niemann and adding recent signings Sebastian Munoz from Colombia and Mito Pereira from Chile; and Cameron Smith’s all-Australian team, now called Ripper.
Players who finished in the top 24 in the 2022 Invitational Series were guaranteed spots to the 2023 LIV Golf League, according to a news release. American Sihwan Kim earned a spot to win the Asian Tour Order of Merit, and Zimbabwe’s Scott Vincent did the same by winning the Asian Tour International Series Order of Merit.
The rest of the roster spots were filled by captain’s picks and league waivers. It was not immediately clear what that meant for the players who played LIV events in 2022 and did not qualify for 2023, and whether they would be able to go back to their previous tours if they so wished.
The league continues to be a source of controversy in the game of golf, both for its upheaval of the ecosystem on the PGA Tour and international courses, and for its use of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund money, which critics have called an attempt to “sportswash” the Kingdom’s poor human rights record.
“In less than a year, LIV Golf has revitalized the professional game and laid the groundwork for the future of the sport. In 2023, the LIV Golf League comes to life,” LIV CEO and Commissioner Greg Norman said in a statement. โThe most popular sports in the world are team sports, and our league format has already begun to build connections with new audiences around the world.
“Grand champions, current and future Hall of Famers, and up-and-coming stars are all committed to creating this new platform for world-class competition as the sport evolves for the next generation.”
The streak will grow from eight events last season to 14 in 2023. The Mayakoba season opener will be played Feb. 24-26.
–Field Level Media
Source: sn.dk