Phil Mickelson says improved LIV roster ‘going to occur’

Phil Mickelson on Wednesday mentioned a revised settlement “type of opens the door” for different PGA Tour gamers to hitch the LIV Golf League, with the six-time main champion hinting that the breakaway league’s roster is “going to enhance subsequent yr.”

“Do I believe that? No. I do know that is going to occur,” Mickelson mentioned at a information convention at Trump Nationwide Doral Golf Membership exterior Miami, the location of this weekend’s LIV Golf League crew championship. “When gamers take a look at LIV, they’re eager to be part of it. Everyone right here is completely satisfied and having fun with what we’re doing and having fun with the crew facet of it and having fun with one another and the camaraderie and having fun with enjoying golf globally and all the advantages that include enjoying this tour.

“There’s a number of gamers that see that and wish to be part of it. The query is what number of spots can be found? There’s much more gamers that wish to come than there are spots.”

The framework settlement that the PGA Tour reached with Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund and the DP World Tour on June 6 included a provision that the LIV Golf League would cease recruiting gamers from the opposite excursions. That language, nevertheless, was later faraway from the settlement due to stress from the U.S. Division of Justice’s Antitrust Division.

There are anticipated to be no less than three open spots — and maybe a number of extra — for gamers to hitch the LIV Golf League in 2024.

In a letter despatched to LIV Golf commissioner Greg Norman and COO Gary Davidson on Oct. 10, Official World Golf Rating chairman Peter Dawson mentioned that the OWGR’s governing board had unanimously rejected LIV Golf’s application for world-ranking points partly as a result of the circuit was an excessive amount of of a closed store.

Within the letter, Dawson mentioned LIV Golf League officers advised the board that 14 gamers can be assured one of many 48 roster spots for 2024, no matter their efficiency this season. The highest 24 within the season-long factors race can return the following season.

In keeping with the letter, LIV Golf League officers confirmed to OWGR that as few as 4 new gamers can be becoming a member of the league in 2024 — three from an upcoming promotions occasion and one, Andy Ogletree, from the Asian Tour Worldwide Sequence. Dawson did write that LIV Golf League officers had been “projecting the next turnover fee.”

Chase Koepka, James Piot, Jed Morgan and Sihwan Kim are in line to be relegated from the league due to their finishes within the particular person factors race. They’ll get again into the league by ending within the prime three within the promotion match later this yr.

Mickelson, captain of HyFlyers GC, was requested about Piot, the 2021 U.S. Newbie winner, incomes again his roster spot.

“The truth is, I have been fielding calls, as all of us have, from gamers which might be brokers to PGA Tour gamers, to DP World Tour gamers that wish to come over,” Mickelson mentioned. “It is in all probability going to be stuffed by the point the qualifying match is right here. If I am simply being truthful, that is a really actual risk.”

Mickelson additionally joined Bryson DeChambeau by calling on the four major championships to create new pathways for LIV Golf League golfers to compete within the sport’s greatest occasions.

“I believe that the majors want to guard their product, and there is in all probability different ways in which they will do this by creating slots,” Mickelson mentioned. “In the event that they wish to be sure that they’ve the perfect fields in golf, they may create automobiles for gamers on LIV to play in majors the place they do not have to make use of the OWGR, which might undermine the TV contract and income of the PGA Tour in the event that they gave factors to LIV.”