Since its inception in 2022, LIV Golf has tended to recruit players with vast professional experience.
Among the first intake of signings were two-time Major winner Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson, who signed on the dotted line around a year after he became the oldest Major winner of all time with his 2021 PGA Championship win at the age of 50.
More experience soon followed, including Major winners Patrick Reed, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith, and that continued with the likes of two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson, who was 43 when he joined LIV Golf, and PGA Tour journeyman Charles Howell III, who was the same age when he made the leap to the circuit.
However, there have been some notable exceptions, including four players who went straight from their college careers to the big-money League.
Eugenio Chacarra
Eugenio Chacarra played for Oklahoma State University before joining LIV Golf
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Spaniard Eugenio Chacarra was already making a name for himself before joining LIV Golf. The Madrid-born player was enjoying a hugely successful college career at Oklahoma State University when LIV came calling.
Among his achievements were becoming a first-team All-American and reaching second in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. He was also on the watchlist for the Haskins Award before arguably the biggest achievement of his college career.
That came when Chacarra finished third in the 2022 PGA Tour University rankings, which landed him a Korn Ferry Tour card. However, he later announced he would forfeit that chance of a professional career to stay on at Oklahoma State for another year.
Two months later, though, there had been a change of heart, with Chacarra joining LIV Golf in June 2022 and winning his first tournament as a professional at that year’s event in Bangkok.
James Piot
James Piot had been at Michigan State before joining LIV Golf
(Image credit: Getty Images)
James Piot enrolled at Michigan State in 2017, and soon accumulated honors, including being named Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2018, and becoming an All-Big Ten First Team selection and an All-American Honorable Mention in his senior year in 2021.
He then pulled off his greatest achievement at that point with victory in the 2021 US Amateur at Oakmont Country Club.
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