Almost four months after the curtain came down on the LIV Golf season with the Team Championship at Trump National Doral, it returns with an expanded 14-tournament League, beginning this week in Mexico at Mayakoba’s El Camaleon Golf Club.
As anticipated, there have been a clutch of new signings during the off-season, and they all participate this week as part of the now-familiar 48-man field.
The team aspect of each tournament is likely to gain further traction this year considering the franchise model being introduced. That means, more than ever, how each player performs within the context of their team will be vital. Last year, 4 Aces GC, led by Dustin Johnson, dominated proceedings through the season and predictably won the Team Championship. However, there is a new look to his team to begin this season, with Talor Gooch making way for Peter Uihlein to join the retained Patrick Reed and Pat Perez.
Of course, as well as the other established players, including Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Cameron Smith and Sergio Garcia, much of the attention will be on the performances of the six new signings.
Mito Pereira enjoyed a successful rookie year on the PGA Tour last year, which included a tie for third in the PGA Championship at Southern Hills. While that could have been so much better before he double-bogeyed the 72nd hole, it still served notice that the Chilean is a significant talent. Pereira joins Joaquin Niemann’s Torque GC along with another new signing, Sebastian Munoz. The Colombian makes his LIV Golf debut having won once on the PGA Tour, the 2019 Sanderson Farms Championship.
Dean Burmester joins the all-South African Stinger GC only months after earning his PGA Tour card. Before that, the World No.63, had largely played on the DP World Tour and the Sunshine Tour.
Two more new faces, Brendan Steele and Danny Lee, also compete, with Mickelson’s Hy Flyers GC and Kevin Na’s Iron Heads GC, respectively. Lee almost won on the course in 2018 in the PGA Tour’s Mayakoba Golf Classic. However, he came up short by one shot to winner Matt Kuchar.
The final new signing is arguably the highest profile of the six – World No.35 Thomas Pieters, who has six DP World Tour wins and two top 10 finishes in Majors, and he will be confident of becoming an important player on Bubba Watson’s Range Goats GC.
Like Lee, several other players in this week’s field have had degrees of success on the course, including Fireballs GC player Carlos…
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