When the third season of LIV Golf starts on February 2 at Mayakoba, there will be some new names among the well-known ones that have become associated with the circuit.
Five new entries have been confirmed so far. Two of them have played on the tour before, but for the other three, it will be their first time playing in the no-cut, limited-field League.
CEO Greg Norman said that “eight to twelve players are very, very keen to sit down and talk to us about coming on board.” This means that more players will likely join before the season starts.
We expect to find out who those players are in due time, but for now, here’s what we know about the five players who have been announced for the 2024 season.
Jinichiro Kozuma
Kozuma, a famous Japanese golfer, went pro in 2012 and has mostly played on the Japan Golf Tour since then. He has also won two tournaments on it, the 2020 Mitsui Sumitomo Visa Taiheiyo Masters and the 2022 Token Homemate Cup.
So far, the 29-year-old has only played in two Majors: the PGA Championship in 2022 and the US Open that same year. However, he failed to make the cut at both events.
Still, that year was his best yet, as shown by his career-high world ranking of 94th, which he hit in April. He then went on to play in three events in the first LIV Golf season.
Kozuma made it into the 2024 LIV Golf League by accepting an invite to the first round of the LIV Golf Promotions event. He made the most of his chance and finished second after a tough three-man final.
Kozuma is the only Japanese player on LIV Golf’s books right now. He also played in three International Series games in 2023.
Andy Ogletree
With LIV Golf, 2019 US Amateur winner Ogletree has had a hit-or-miss run. At first, he looked like he had a bright future when he was one of 48 people chosen for the first competition at London’s Centurion Club. But things didn’t go as planned, and he came in very last place in the rankings.
Later, Ogletree said that his bad performance was the reason he “kind of got the boot,” which put him in a tough spot at first. He was banned from the PGA Tour and the Korn Ferry Tour, even though he only played in one LIV Golf event. He finally found a way to play again on the Asian Tour and, most impressively, its International Series.
By the end of 2022, Ogletree had won the International Series Egypt. He then won twice more in 2023, in England and Qatar, which put him at the top of the Order of Merit and guaranteed his return to LIV Golf for good.
In the time between his Asian Tour appearances, he also got his LIV Golf career back on track by filling in for sick Crushers GC player Paul Casey and then for Majesticks GC co-captain Lee Westwood. He then made a third appearance, this time on Crushers GC for Anirban Lahiri.
He also did well; he finished in the Open Zone of the individual results even though he only played three times. That meant he didn’t have to enter the LIV Golf Draft to sign with a team. He finally joined Phil Mickelson’s Hy Flyers GC to finish out the team’s roster.
Jon Rahm
Early in the year, not many people thought Jon Rahm would end the year as a LIV Golf player. But recently, the top men’s game has been anything but expected, and in December, the Spaniard may have been the biggest player the league had ever signed.
When Rahm went pro in 2016, he didn’t waste any time making his mark on the game. In 2017, he won the Farmers Insurance Open on the PGA Tour.
In those seven years, he has won 20 major tournaments, including two Majors, the US Open at Torrey Pines in 2021 and The Masters at Augusta National the next year. He was also very important in Team Europe’s excellent Ryder Cup win over the US at Marco Simone, which happened just two months before his shocking move.
These wins have made him become one of the most famous people of his time. Rahm is only 29 years old, so he probably still has a lot of good years ahead of him. He will spent at least some of those years with LIV Golf.
Kalle Samooja
When Finn Samooja first became a professional golfer in 2010, he mostly played on the Asian Tour and the Challenge Tour. In 2018, he made his big break when he won the Hainan Open on the Challenge Tour. This put him in fourth place on the Order of Merit and got him promoted to the DP World Tour.
In 2022, he won his first Tour event, the Porsche European Open. In 2023, he continued to do well on the Tour, including a T4 at the Made in Himmerland.
Samooja qualified for the LIV Golf Promotions tournament with that win in 2022, and he won it with the help of birdies on the last two holes.
Finn, 35, is the first person from his country to play in the LIV Golf League. It will probably be the most important event of his life. He had made about $2.6 million after 129 shows on the DP World Tour. That’s expected to be surpassed by him in 2024. If he wins one of the tournaments, he’ll do it in just three days.
Kieran Vincent
Even though Chase Koepka, Brooks Koepka’s brother, couldn’t keep up his LIV Golf career after finishing in the Drop Zone, there will still be siblings in the 2024 League season thanks to Zimbabwean Vincent’s playoff win at the LIV Golf Promotions event. He will join his brother Scott when the season starts in Mexico.
The 26-year-old went pro in 2022 and played on the PGA Tour Canada at first. In 2023, he moved to the Asian Tour. He quickly made a name for himself by winning the International Series Vietnam event by one shot over Anirban Lahiri of LIV Golf and Kevin Yuan.
As soon as Vincent booked his spot at LIV Golf in Abu Dhabi, he tried to explain what it meant for his future. “I just hope this takes my career to a whole new level,” he said. “Of course, go on a tour where you can learn so much from so many cool guys.” It doesn’t get much better than that, especially since Jon Rahm just signed.
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