As golf enters a period of relative downtime, there are still a handful of tournaments co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour to keep players tuned up ahead of the various Tours beginning for real in the early part of 2024.
This week, the Australian PGA Championship and the Joburg Open are taking place concurrently and will feature a number of LIV Golf League members – including a couple of previous Major winners.
The Australian event holds arguably the stronger field of the two, with 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith returning to his homeland alongside Ripper GC teammate Marc Leishman, but the Joburg Open features a significant number of excellent South African golfers – including Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace, and Dean Burmester – and is offering three spots for the 152nd Open Championship at Royal Troon.
Those playing in Australia this week may well be doing so in order to sharpen their respective games prior to the ISPS Handa Australian seven days later – where another hat-trick of opportunities to tee it up in Scotland next year will be on the line.
Smith is a previous winner of the Australian PGA Championship, landing the title just 12 months ago by three shots. He will be joined by PGA Tour member Adam Scott as another Major winner who will try to record multiple victories in the nation of his birth.
Jediah Morgan has not yet scooped one of the sport’s most famous prizes, but he is another former champion of the Australian event and returns for another crack. Morgan is an ex-teammate of Smith and Leishman, too, but was relegated from the LIV Golf series at the end of the most recent campaign. He will be hoping to regain a card at the upcoming LIV Golf Promotion event, however.
England’s Laurie Canter crossed over to LIV Golf in 2022 and has been a regular reserve across the first two campaigns – featuring in 18 of the 21 events for either Cleeks GC or Majesticks GC. After having paid his DP World Tour fine and served his suspension, the 34-year-old is hoping to play more regularly on the European circuit in 2024.
Completing the LIV Golf posse at Royal Queensland is the Chilean pair of Mito Pereira and Jaoquin Niemann. Both players – who were stars on the first season of Netflix show ‘Full Swing’ – have locked up their LIV Golf memberships for 2024 after an eighth-place finish in the individual standings for Pereira and a season-long result of 21st for Niemann.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Which LIV Golfers Are Playing On The DP World Tour This Week?
AUSTRALIAN PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
- Cameron Smith
- Marc Leishman
- Mito Pereira
- Jaoquin Niemann
- Laurie Canter
JOBURG OPEN
- Charl Schwartzel
- Dean Burmester
- Branden Grace