LIV Golf to name Mito Pereira on 2023 player roster
Exclusive: Updated list of players for expanded calendar is expected to include Pereira who missed out on the USPGA Championship last year
LIV Golf will finally release its playing roster for its 2023 league next week, with Mito Pereira – the young Chilean who came so close to winning his first major last year – expected to be among the latest signings.
The Saudi-funded circuit will resume next month, with the £20-million event in Mexico teeing off a 14-tournament season in which 48 players will compete for combined purses of more than £330m.
The golf world has been waiting to discover who will be joining the likes of Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson in the breakaway that has irrevocably changed the complexion of the elite end of the male game. LIV originally indicated that they would unveil the talent list at the end of November but then put it back to end of December.
However, the enterprise funded by the Saudi Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund has endured a turbulent close season since Dustin Johnson finished off the inaugural season by taking his winnings to more than $36m [£29.63m] at Trump Doral in November.
Greg Norman, the CEO, has seen COO Atul Khosla leave in circumstances that remain unclear and also lost another member of its management team, franchises chief Matt Goodman.
The governance overhaul has led to the delays, but insiders have told Telegraph Sport that LIV is ready to cause more waves and it will be intriguing to discover who else they have persuaded to entice with mammoth signing-on fees.
Pereira’s capture would come as no surprise. The world No 44–- who agonisingly double-bogeyed the 18th at the USPGA last May to miss a play-off eventually won by Justin Thomas – is a close friend of countryman Joaquin Niemann, the 22nd ranked player who switched last year.
Some might scoff at the importance of a Pereira defection, but he played in the Presidents Cup in November and is a competitor with huge promise. His presence would strengthen LIV’s Latin-America contingent still further, with Mexicans Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz, both PGA Tour winners, already ensconced.
Nevertheless, there is pressure on LIV to bag another big name. World No 4 Patrick Cantlay has consistently kept the door ajar, but appears to be sticking with the traditionalists at the moment, while Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama remains a prime target. There is also the little matter of a TV deal to fix. This is central to LIV’s ambitions in its second years.
The ever-grinding rumour mill has only pounded still further with reports from the Golf Week in the US revealing that Americans Cameron Young and Cameron Champ, as well as Australian Lucas Herbert, have been granted releases by the PGA Tour to play at the Saudi International in three weeks’ time.
That event is also bankrolled by the Public Investment Fund and just six months ago Young, the world No 17 who finished second at The Open, confessed that he had been tempted to join LIV. After a brief hiatus, the golf grapevine is back in full production.