19th Hole
What happened to the players who played LIV’s opener that are now surplus to requirements

LIV Golf has slowly but surely been adding notable talent to their player field as the weeks and months have gone on. While recent additions such as Paul Casey, Henrik Stenson, Jason Kokrak and Charles Howell III likely have already played their best golf, there’s no denying they are notable names in the world of golf.
In Roman Numerals, LIV means 54 and the format for the series features 48 player fields battling it out over 54 holes. Considering the 48-man fields are unlikely to change (this year at least), the more notable golfers that get added to the series, the more golfers that need to be cast aside.
Which begs the question: What happens to the LIV defectors who’ve been replaced in the field by bigger names?
A handful of the players who’ve been replaced after the first event at Centurion Club are still members of the DP World Tour. Unlike the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour hasn’t suspended those who’ve chosen to play in LIV events indefinitely. Instead, they were assessed hefty fines and are still eligible to participate.
Among those who played at Centurion Club and returned to the DP World Tour after they weren’t invited to the LIV Portland event are Oliver Bekker, Oliver Fisher and Pablo Larrazabal.
Other golfers who appeared at LIV London but not LIV Portland include Kevin Yuan and Viraj Madappa who both returned to the Asian Tour, and 15-year-old phenom Ratchanon Chantananuwat who needs much more seasoning on the amateur circuit before he becomes a professional.
Andy Ogletree, who finished last at 24 over par, collected a cool £100,000 for his troubles and doesn’t currently play on any known professional golf tours.
In addition to the golfers left behind after LIV London, there are another handful who played LIV Portland but are not in the field at LIV Bedminster. Those golfers include Itthipat Buranatanyarat (Thailand), Sihwan Kim (USA), Adrian Otaegui (Spain), Ian Snyman (South Africa) and Blake Windred (Australia).
Itthipat Buranatanyarat has three wins on the Asian Development Tour and will likely be returning there.
Sihwan Kim has two wins on the Asian Tour this year, which were the first two victories of his professional career. He will continue to play on both the Asian Tour and DP World Tour in the future.
Adrian Otaegui will return to the DP World Tour and he recently played at the star-studded Genesis Scottish Open after his LIV Portland appearance.
Ian Snyman will continue to play on the Challenge Tour and the developmental tour in South Africa.
Blake Windred won his first professional event in his home of Australia this year and will be playing on the Challenge Tour going forward.
There will undoubtedly be plenty other players ousted from LIV Golf in the coming months as it’s been reported that there will be some more announcements coming after the FedEx Cup playoffs have concluded. Stars such as Cameron Smith and Hideki Matsuyama are among the big names rumored to be in talks with LIV.
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19th Hole
‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.
However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.
Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.
Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.
Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.
19th Hole
How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.
Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.
Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.
Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.
Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.
“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course. Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”
According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.
“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”
Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.
19th Hole
Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.
Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.
The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.
Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”
“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”
Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.
“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”
Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.