Twelve of the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking have joined the LIV Golf Invitational Series. The 48 players in the field at The International can be roughly divided into four categories: golfers who still were relevant on the PGA or European tours when they joined LIV; those whose best years are behind them; grinders who have been plying their trade anonymously around the world; and younger players who are getting their first real taste of professional golf.
World rankings and ages are as of Aug. 30. Wins came on the PGA Tour, the European tour, in World Golf Championships or at majors.
Still relevant
Cameron Smith
Age: 29
World ranking: 2
Career top-level wins: 8
Most recent: 2022
Smith joined LIV this week, becoming its highest-ranked golfer and most recent major-championship winner.
Joaquin Niemann
Age: 23
World ranking: 19
Career top-level wins: 2
Most recent: 2022
The LIV newcomer won in February but has never finished higher than T-23 in 15 major-championship appearances.
Dustin Johnson
Age: 38
World ranking: 22
Career top-level wins: 31
Most recent: 2021
The two-time major champion hasn’t won anything since his Masters title in November 2020.
Abraham Ancer
Age: 31
World ranking: 24
Career top-level wins: 1
Most recent: 2021
Ancer tied for 11th and tied for ninth at the past two major championships, but he had just three top-10s this season before departing for LIV.
Brooks Koepka
Age: 32
World ranking: 26
Career top-level wins: 9
Most recent: 2021
The former world No. 1 won four of eight majors played between the 2017 U.S. Open and 2019 PGA Championship, but injuries have slowed him since.
Louis Oosthuizen
Age: 39
World ranking: 31
Career top-level wins: 9
Most recent: 2018
The 2010 British Open winner finished second or third at the final three majors in 2021; this year’s results haven’t been as good.
Bryson DeChambeau
Age: 28
World ranking: 37
Career top-level wins: 9
Most recent: 2021
The brainy, beefy big hitter ran away with the 2020 U.S. Open before dealing with a host of injuries.
Kevin Na
Age: 38
World ranking: 34
Career top-level wins: 5
Most recent: 2021
Na went seven years between victories before a career resurgence in his late 30s.
Jason Kokrak
Age: 37
World ranking: 38
Career top-level wins: 3
Most recent: 2021
Before leaving for LIV, Kokrak didn’t have a top-10 PGA Tour finish since winning the Houston Open in November.
Talor Gooch
Age: 30
World ranking: 45
Career top-level wins: 1
Most recent: 2021
Gooch earned a spot in all four majors for the first time this year but finished no better than 14th, with one missed cut.
Harold Varner III
Age: 32
World ranking: 46
Career top-level wins: 1
Most recent: 2022
Varner’s lone professional win came on a miracle shot at a European tour event in Saudi Arabia earlier this year.
Patrick Reed
Age: 32
World ranking: 50
Career top-level wins: 9
Most recent: 2021
Reed won the 2018 Masters but has dealt with on- and off-course controversies.
Cameron Tringale
Age: 35
World ranking: 55
Career top-level wins: 1
Most recent: 2014
Tringale posted five top 10s this season but his lone win came at a team event eight years ago.
Marc Leishman
Age: 38
World ranking: 62
Career top-level wins: 7
Most recent: 2021
Leishman missed the cut in 5 of 10 tournaments to close his PGA Tour season.
Matthew Wolff
Age: 23
World ranking: 100
Career top-level wins: 1
Most recent: 2019
Only Ben Crenshaw, Tiger Woods and Wolff have won an NCAA championship and a PGA Tour event in the same year.
Branden Grace
Age: 34
World ranking: 145
Career top-level wins: 12
Most recent: 2022
Grace won the second LIV Golf tournament in Oregon in early July.
On the downswing
Paul Casey
Age: 45
World ranking: 33
Career top-level wins: 18
Most recent: 2021
He’s one of the better LIV players to never win a major; 16 of his 18 career wins were in 2015 or earlier.
Sergio Garcia
Age: 42
World ranking: 74
Career top-level wins: 26
Most recent: 2020
Garcia has one win since his 2017 Masters title and has seen his world ranking steadily decline.
Richard Bland
Age: 49
World ranking: 79
Career top-level wins: 1
Most recent: 2021
The journeyman scored his only pro win last year at 48, when he also cracked the top 100 for the first time.
Lee Westwood
Age: 49
World ranking: 102
Career top-level wins: 27
Most recent: 2020
The former world No. 1 has 19 top-10 major finishes without a win.
Phil Mickelson
Age: 52
World ranking: 109
Career top-level wins: 47
Most recent: 2021
Once one of the sport’s most beloved players, the six-time major winner decided to spend his twilight golf years playing for LIV.
Ian Poulter
Age: 46
World ranking: 111
Career top-level wins: 15
Most recent: 2018
All but one of the Englishman’s victories came in 2012 or earlier. He’s better known for his Ryder Cup prowess.
Charl Schwartzel
Age: 37
World ranking: 126
Career top-level wins: 12
Most recent: 2016
Schwartzel’s final-round 66 to win the 2011 Masters was memorable, but the bulk of his success has come in Europe.
Charles Howell III
Age: 43
World ranking: 197
Career top-level wins: 3
Most recent: 2018
The PGA Tour veteran has earned millions over a lengthy career despite not winning all that often.
Henrik Stenson
Age: 46
World ranking: 179
Career top-level wins: 16
Most recent: 2017
The former British Open champion won the first LIV tournament he played in July.
Pat Perez
Age: 46
World ranking: 196
Career top-level wins: 3
Most recent: 2017
Perez once was No. 16 in the world but now is better known for his collection of Jordan sneakers.
Martin Kaymer
Age: 37
World ranking: 338
Career top-level wins: 12
Most recent: 2014
Kaymer’s three wins on U.S. soil were impressive — two majors and the 2014 Players Championship — but he hasn’t been relevant in years.
Wade Ormsby
Age: 42
World ranking: 362
Career top-level wins: 1
Most recent: 2017
The Australian has split time among the European, Asian and Australian tours, never making much of an impact.
Graeme McDowell
Age: 43
World ranking: 399
Career top-level wins: 14
Most recent: 2020
McDowell won the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, but his best years are well behind him.
Anonymous journeymen
Scott Vincent
Age: 30
World ranking: 81
Career top-level wins: 0
Vincent, from Zimbabwe, has won four times on Asian tours since August.
Matt Jones
Age: 42
World ranking: 82
Career top-level wins: 2
Most recent: 2021
The Australian’s PGA Tour victories came nearly seven years apart — in 2014 and 2021.
Anirban Lahiri
Age: 35
World ranking: 92
Career top-level wins: 2
Most recent: 2015
Both of the Indian golfer’s top-level wins came on the European tour in 2015.
Shaun Norris
Age: 40
World ranking: 93
Career top-level wins: 1
Most recent: 2022
Norris has played much of his career in Asia, Africa and Australia, but he won a European tour event in March.
Bernd Wiesberger
Age: 36
World ranking: 110
Career top-level wins: 8
Most recent: 2021
The Austrian has one top-10 finish this year and was near the bottom of the leader board at the first two LIV events.
Hudson Swafford
Age: 34
World ranking: 115
Career top-level wins: 3
Most recent: 2022
After winning in January at the American Express, Swafford missed seven cuts in 12 PGA Tour events before leaving for LIV.
Laurie Canter
Age: 32
World ranking: 139
Career top-level wins: 0
The Englishman has 11 career top-10 finishes, all since 2019 and all on the European tour.
Carlos Ortiz
Age: 31
World ranking: 146
Career top-level wins: 1
Most recent: 2020
With his win at the Houston Open, Ortiz became the third Mexican golfer to win on the PGA Tour and the first since Victor Regalado in 1978.
Sihwan Kim
Age: 33
World ranking: 157
Career top-level wins: 0
The American has spent nearly his entire career on the European and Asian Tours.
Adrian Otaegui
Age: 29
World ranking: 159
Career top-level wins: 3
Most recent: 2020
Otaegui has qualified for only four majors and missed the cut in three of them.
Peter Uihlein
Age: 33
World ranking: 361
Career top-level wins: 1
Most recent: 2013
Uihlein never lived up to the billing after becoming one of the world’s top amateurs.
Chase Koepka
Age: 28
World ranking: 1,615
Career top-level wins: 0
Brooks’s younger brother missed the cut in seven of his previous nine tournaments before joining LIV.
Youngsters
Sam Horsfield
Age: 25
World ranking: 95
Career top-level wins: 3
Most recent: 2022
The budding English star won in Belgium this year but missed the cut in all three major appearances.
Sadom Kaewkanjana
Age: 24
World ranking: 91
Career top-level wins: 0
The Thai golfer won an Asian Tour event this year, his second victory on that circuit.
Phachara Khongwatmai
Age: 23
World ranking: 142
Career top-level wins: 0
Another up-and-coming Thai golfer, Khongwatmai won an Asian Tour event in December.
Jediah Morgan
Age: 22
World ranking: 296
Career top-level wins: 0
Morgan won a PGA Tour of Australasia event in January in only his fourth professional tournament.
Turk Pettit
Age: 23
World ranking: 650
Career top-level wins: 0
Pettit won the 2021 NCAA championship at Clemson. He finished 45th and 46th out of 48 at the first two LIV tournaments.
James Piot
Age: 23
World ranking: 2,326
Career top-level wins: 0
Piot turned pro in May and jumped to LIV after missing the cut at all six PGA Tour events he played.
Eugenio Chacarra
Age: 22
World ranking: 2,326
Career top-level wins: 0
The Spaniard left Oklahoma State early — he was a first-team all-American — to join LIV.