[PHOTO: Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship]
Young guns Jack Buchanan and Phoenix Campbell, as well as Asian Tour winner Travis Smyth, are among 12 Australians teeing up at LIV Golf’s qualifying school in Saudi Arabia this week, where just one spot on the lucrative league in 2025 is up for grabs.
Buchanan, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour of Australasia this season, will be joined at Riyadh Golf Club by fellow recent winners on the Australian circuit, Campbell, Daniel Gale, William Bruyeres, Brett Coletta, Brett Rankin and Matthew Griffin. Former LIV golfers Smyth, and Jed Morgan, the 2021 Australian PGA winner, Maverick Antcliff, Jak Carter, and Wade Ormsby will also compete.
There will be 93 total golfers in Riyadh competing for one spot on the 54-hole league for next season, whose schedule of 14 events each offer $US 25 million purses ($US20 million individual component/$US5 million teams purse). LIV Golf’s flagship event is in Australia at the successful LIV Adelaide, which will be held in February in 2025.
There will be 30 countries represented at LIV Golf Promotions, where the total purse will be $US1.5 million. In addition to the 2025 LIV card, the top 10 finishers, including ties, will gain an exemption into all events on the Asian Tour’s presitigious International Series in 2025. The season-long order of merit winner from the International Series each year is also a pathway to LIV Golf.
The promotions tournament features a four-round, 18-hole event across three days with several cuts. There will be 63 players in the opening round, where the top 20 advance to the second round, when several exempt players, including Morgan, join the tournament. Scores will be reset, and the top 20 players (after tiebreakers) move on to the final day where scores will again be reset for a 36-hole race to the finish.
Kalle Samooja won the event in 2023 but was relegated from LIV and he is attempting rejoin LIV from Riyadh.
Morgan, 25, was dropped from Cameron Smith’s Ripper GC team at the end of 2023, with Smith signing three-time DP World and one-time PGA Tour winner, Lucas Herbert, on the all-Aussie team. It proved to be a smart signing when Hebert played a crucial role in helping the Ripper GC side win the $A30m season-long team championship in Dallas in September.
Apart from the Australians, there is a lack of high-profile players at the promotions event. Former Ryder Cup player Chris Wood, from England, is among the field’s bigger names while former world No. 1 amateur Ollie Schniederjans and 2023 NCAA champion Fred Biondi are two other notables. Last year’s promotions featured former PGA champion Jason Dufner, Ryder Cuppers Jeff Overton and Victor Dubuisson and tour players like Kyle Stanley, Kevin Chappell, Martin Trainer and Chris Stroud. While this week’s event doesn’t have the same amount of recognisable names, there are a few notables teeing it up, highlighted by Fred Biondi.
Biondi, 23, won the 2023 NCAA individual championship at the University of Florida, and played a full-time schedule on the Korn Ferry Tour this past season. Unfortunately for Biondi, he struggled on the minor-league circuit, missing the cut in 15 of 22 starts to finish 117th on the KFT points list. He did reach the weekend in two of four spot starts at the PGA Tour level. He enters the week 640th in the Official World Golf Ranking. Other young players include former Latin America Amateur champion Santiago de le Fuente, US Amateur semi-finalist Luis Masaveu and two-time All-American Logan McAllister.
LIV chief executive, Greg Norman, said: “Building on our first and highly successful LIV Golf Promotions in 2023, the interest has only increased this year as one deserving player will earn the chance to compete in the LIV Golf League. “The strong interest underscores the significance of creating more opportunities in our global sport to ensure current and rising stars of the game can build their careers and compete at the highest level.”
Field for LIV Golf Promotions:
- Maverick Antcliff
- Adri Arnaus
- James Ashfield
- Khalid Attieh
- Jean Bekirian
- Matthis Besard
- Gaganjeet Bhullar
- Fred Biondi
- Christofer Blomstrand
- David Boriboonsub
- Barclay Brown
- William Bruyeres
- Jack Buchanan
- Ben Campbell
- Phoenix Campbell
- Luis Carrera
- Jak Carter
- John Catlin
- Gunn Charoenkul
- Lee Chieh-po
- Wooyoung Cho
- Brett Coletta
- Bryce Easton
- Santiago de la Fuente
- Daniel Gale
- Branden Grace
- Matthew Griffin
- Jeongwoo Ham
- Chase Hanna
- Bjorn Hellgren
- Kazuki Higa
- Bo Hoag
- David Horsey
- Inhoi Hur
- Jose Islas
- Jazz Janewattananond
- Sadom Kaewkanjana
- Kota Kaneko
- Max Kennedy
- Taichi Kho
- Phachara Khongwatmai
- Hongtaek Kim
- Chanwoo Kim
- Ryosuke Kinoshita
- Jbe Kruger
- Junghwan Lee
- Richard T. Lee
- Daihan Lee
- Dongmin Lee
- Soomin Lee
- Spencer Levin
- Tom Lewis
- Steve Lewton
- Hurly Long
- Jack Lundin
- Alex Maguire
- Michael Maguire
- Luis Masaveu
- Stefano Mazzoli
- Logan McAllister
- Ross McGowan
- Matthew McClean (amateur)
- Jed Morgan
- Liam Nolan
- Wade Ormsby
- Renato Paratore
- Turk Pettit
- Mark Power
- Suteepat Prateeptienchai
- Brett Rankin
- Max Rottluff
- Kalle Samooja
- Ollie Schniederjans
- Luke Schniederjans
- Tatsunori Shogenji
- Martin Simonsen
- Travis Smyth
- Ian Snyman
- Joe Sullivan
- Hudson Swafford
- Miguel Tabuena
- Martin Trainer
- Kieran Vincent
- Scott Vincent
- Borja Virto
- Nick Voke
- Jeunghun Wang
- Rattanon Wannasrichan
- Chang Wei-Iun
- Chris Wood
- Ben Van Wyk
- Sampson Zheng
- Ziqin Zhou (amateur)
