LIV Golf Announces Field Expansion With Extra 'Wildcard' Players

LIV Golf has announced that its 2024 tournaments will feature 13 teams of four players and two 'wildcard' picks - a new addition for the latest season. 

On the eve of its third campaign - which begins with LIV Golf Mayakoba on Friday - the 54-hole circuit revealed it will now operate with 54 golfers for all 14 tournaments this campaign, up from 48 last term.

While the various golf clubs will also compete for the team trophies and prize purses, the pair of unattached players will battle it out for individual prizes at each event as well as taking part in the season-long individual championship race.

American, Hudson Swafford has been locked in as a full-season wildcard following an injury-plagued 2023, while Laurie Canter will step up as the second wildcard in Mexico only after painfully missing out on a full card via the LIV Golf Promotions event in Abu Dhabi last December.

Swafford has three PGA Tour titles to his name - including the 2022 American Express - but was suspended from the US-based circuit following his participation in the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational in London later that summer.

According to a statement from LIV announcing the slight format change, Swafford is aiming to "take advantage of another full-time opportunity with LIV Golf this season."

Meanwhile, Swafford's first fellow wildcard - Canter - has played multiple events in the LIV Golf League, filling in for large parts of the 2023 edition as part of Majesticks GC. Canter was also a member of the very first LIV event at the Centurion Club.

After turning pro in 2011, the 34-year-old has begun to flourish in recent years and enjoyed a breakout season during 2020 via a couple of runner-up finishes in the Portugal Masters and the Italian Open on the DP World Tour. The following year, Canter secured his best result to date, scoring second place behind Billy Horschel at the 2021 BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

Both Swafford and Canter will be up against the likes of Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Adrian Meronk, and Lucas Herbert in the 2024 LIV Golf League after the four players made the permanent switch from the PGA Tour and DP World Tour during the winter break.

Rahm and Hatton are members of the newly-formed Legion XIII, while Meronk has joined one of Canter's old teams - Cleeks GC. Herbert is the fourth and final member of Cameron Smith's all-Australian Ripper GC.