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LIV Golf has announced its second day of roster reveal and there are no new players. LIV has been trying to poach talent from the PGA Tour, rather successfully, since its inception, but they've not landed any new names recently.
The Sergio Garcia-led Fireballs GC remains the exact same with Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz and Eugenio Chacarra following Garcia. Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC is also the exact same team from last year with Paul Casey, Charles Howell III and Anirban Lahiri.
Bernd Weisberger, who was previously on Phil Mickelson’s HyFlyers, replaces Laurie Canter on Martin Kaymer’s team. Both Graeme McDowell and Richard Bland are returning for season two.
Cameron Smith and his team, the renamed Ripper GC, will have Marc Leishman and Matt Jones returning. Jediah Morgan will take Wade Ormsby's place as the only non-Australian on this team.
Rory McIlroy doesn't regret slandering LIV Golf
LIV Golf didn't look like it was going to have a year two, with or without new players, at all just a year ago. Perhaps the league's biggest detractor in Rory McIlroy saw no path forward for the league.
Fast forward to today and it's clear they're not going anywhere right now. That certainly irritates McIlroy, but he doesn't regret making the bold and incorrect prediction that LIV was dead in the water.
McIlroy said via Golf.com:
“No, not at all. I can admit when I’m wrong, and jeez, I’ve been wrong a ton about a lot of stuff. But I just didn’t see it. I just took some of the comments at face value and was like, okay, well, it doesn’t seem like people are interested.”
He did admit that LIV Golf began to scare him a little bit.
“Whenever the LIV guys played in like, Boston and Chicago I had a moment of like — ‘Oh s—. People are turning up and might actually sort of be into this,'” he said. “But I think it was more a novelty thing than anything else, and now the novelty has worn off."
Ultimately, it wasn't totally a novelty. The future of the league is uncertain, but they've been successful thus far in changing golf. Even McIlroy had to admit that:
“I’m also much more confident about where things are. With all the stuff that went on [at a Tour player meeting] in Delaware and the changes we’ve made, I think we’re trending in a much better direction. Look, competition is a good thing. It probably caused the PGA Tour to make changes a little quicker than they usually do. And ultimately that’s a good thing for everyone that plays out here.”
LIV Golf doesn't appear to be going anywhere right now. They have important things to do soon, but they're still plugging along. McIlroy's disdain for it and all its members isn't going away, either.
Even if it implodes and all LIV golfers come back to the PGA Tour, it won't be the same. Those golfers have a label now and players like McIlroy won't welcome them back with open arms.
Will it all be worth it in the end?
