Yosuke Asaji qualified for his entry. Scott Vincent also qualified, but he is also returning.
And Laurie Canter may also return, but his move has a surprising feel to it.
The trio of moves are all part of LIV Golf’s off-season, and more appear to be on the way for the Saudi Arabia-backed league that completed its fourth season in August. Below, then, is a look at the news from the past week.
Yosuke Asaji qualifies for LIV Golf
Asaji did so by finishing second in the ranking during the season of the International Series based on the Asian Tour. In particular, LIV announced recently that two LIV places would be awarded based on ranking, one each, and the move appears to be geared towards securing world ranking points for the league.
Who is Asaji? He is a 29-year-old pro from Japan who has played events this year on the Asian Tour, the Japan Tour and the Korea PGA. He is ranked 237th in the world.
“I was very happy with my wife and my caddy, we were together,” Asaji said Saturday at the PIF Saudi International, the final event of the International Series season.
“We can participate in the LIV event. I was very happy.”
Scott Vincent qualifies at LIV Golf
Vincent returns to LIV finishing first in the International Series standings. The 33-year-old pro from Zimbabwe played with LIV from 2022 to ’24 before being relegated at the end of the ’24 season.
Vincent is currently ranked 156th in the world. IN Saudi Internationalhe tied for 42nd.
“I woke up around 4:30, which was two hours earlier than I expected,” Vincent said Saturday. “Then you start playing out all the different scenarios in your head, which was not what I expected.
“Yeah, I just – I wanted to come out here and just play loose and give it my best shot, but yeah, I was nervous. Obviously not knowing and not trying to look at the leaderboards, you don’t know how much of a cushion you have. You don’t want to be the guy out front and lose, all that stuff.
“Once I got settled in and got into my routine and my putting and fielding, I definitely settled down. Yeah, I just didn’t play well today, but obviously the season was enough.”
Is Laurie Canter returning to LIV?
Sports Business Journal’s Friday Josh Carpenter reported that Canter will be joining LIV – just a week later he had secured a PGA Tour for next year via a top-10 finish in the standings during the DP World Tour season.
The 36-year-old Englishman played in LIV events from 2022 to ’24 – although he only played in two in ’24 – then played on the DP World Tour. In March, he also played in the PGA Tour Players Championship via his position in the world rankings.
Then, he told GOLF’s Josh Schrock:
“I think anybody who plays golf would like to be a member of the PGA Tour,” Canter said. “You look at the event this week, last week I looked and kind of where those Signature Events are going, I mean, if you can engineer it, to play well enough in the place where you have your world rankings where you have signature events and majors – what a year it is for a golfer to play in those places with those golfers for that amount of money.”
But now he seems to be returning to LIV.
Has there been any other movement regarding LIV recently?
Yes, there have been a few.
– Bunkered Ben Parsons recently reported that Henrik Stenson will return to the DP World Tour after playing LIV events from 2022 until the end of this season.
– On Tuesday, Victor Perez withdrew from the PGA Tour’s RSM Classic, and he joined LIV.
– Two more players will join LIV after the game in its Promotions event, set for January 8-11 in Florida.
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