LIV Golf recruits line up for July’s Open at Royal Liverpool

At least 13 from the LIV Golf lineup are in the field for the 151st Open Championship at Hoylake with several more pencilled in for next week’s qualifiers ahead of the July 20 tee-off of the year’s fourth and final major.

The newly-labelled LIV Golf Andalucia gets under way on Friday leading into the four Open qualifying events next week. That sets things up nicely for the 21 hopefuls from the LIV stable who are in qualifying contention.

For those making the final field for the Open at Royal Liverpool, there will also be a good warmup in the form of an International Series event at the Centurion Club near London. Ripper GC captain Cameron Smith is the defending champion, following his victory over Rory McIlroy at St Andrews last year.

The scheduling of LIV Golf League’s first full season has been shaped so that the maximum number of its eligible lineup gets to play in the majors, and the results have been significant, with Brooks Koepka winning the PGA Championship after he and Phil Mickelson shared second place behind Jon Rahm at the Masters. Patrick Reed finished a solid fourth.

There have been five other top-10 finishers at the majors including Smith, who took a flying fourth place at the US Open in Los Angeles a fortnight ago with Bryson DeChambeau ninth, and Dustin Johnson tenth.

“This is really a fun month for us to be over here in Europe,” Mickelson said at the pre-event press conference in Valderrama. Added the HyFlyers captain, “We've got two incredible LIV events here this week at Valderrama and next week in London before a little break to prepare for the British Open.

“I'm expecting a lot of players that aren't in the British to qualify, and then there's a lot of players here that will be competing. This will be an exciting month for the LIV players as we really make a push to the second half of our season, and it's been a lot of fun.”

For Koepka too, the way things have panned out this season that included a fifth major title, have been very satisfactory. “It’s been fantastic,” said the Smash GC captain. “I think you can see the way the schedule has played out how everyone has played in majors.

“Phil second, I got second at the Masters. Good showing by a bunch of LIV guys at the PGA, and then the US Open, as well. I think the schedule has been fantastic. It's definitely helped us in the preparation for the majors, as well.”

“I was excited to come over here,” 4Aces skipper Johnson said. “We had a week off after the US Open, and then coming over here, we've got a couple weeks, then get a nice break, and then obviously get ready for the Open Championship. I think our schedule has been really nice.

“We've had some breaks. There's been some stretches where we've played a lot, but we've also had some nice breaks, too.”

Meanwhile, Mickelson is in the group that tees off in hole number one on Friday at Valderrama alongside home favourite Sergio Garcia and LIV Golf Washington topper Harold Varner III. Other headline groups will start from 2 (Koepka, Bubba Watson and Reed), and 3 (Johnson, DeChambeau and Henrik Stenson).

India and Crushers star Anirbal Lahiri opens on hole 16 along with Sebastian Munoz of Torque GC and Dean Burmester of the Stingers.