How Many LIV Golfers Have Qualified For The 151st Open At Royal Liverpool?

There are 16 players from the LIV Golf League that will play in the Open Championship at Hoylake including defending champion Cameron Smith

Smith holds the Claret Jug
(Image credit: Getty Images)

It's the final Major of the year and the most historic in golf as the 151st Open Championship takes place at Royal Liverpool on July 20-23.

And it's also a final chance to see all of the best players in the world battling against each other as players from the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf will all compete at Hoylake.

There's still no Official World Golf Ranking points available for the 54-hole, shotgun start tournaments in the LIV Golf League, but with Major champions among their ranks and a host of top performers before the split in golf there will still be a decent group from LIV.

And the band of LIV contenders will be led of course by defending champion Cameron Smith, who joined Greg Norman's new tour shortly after lifting the Claret Jug at the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews last year.

Previous winners Phil Mickelson, Henrik Stenson and Louis Oosthuizen can play in the Open until they're 60, and they will be joined by fellow Major champions Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed.

Koepka has a fresh five-year exemption after winning this year's PGA Championship, while Johnson and DeChambeau are in the third year of their exemptions from winning the Masters and US Open respectively in 2020.

Reed is in the final year of his exemption from winning the 2018 Masters but could book a return next year with a top 10 finish at Hoylake.

Fellow LIV golfers Charl Schwartzel, Brandon Grace and Laurie Canter all secured their spot through Final Qualifying, taking the total number of LIV Golf players in the Open field to 16.

LIV Golfers who are in the Open Championship

The 151st Open Championship will take place at Royal Liverpool

(Image credit: Getty Images)
  • Abraham Ancer
  • Brooks Koepka
  • Bryson DeChambeau
  • Cam Smith
  • Dustin Johnson
  • Henrik Stenson
  • Joaquin Niemann
  • Louis Oosthuzien
  • Patrick Reed
  • Phil Mickelson
  • Richard Bland
  • Talor Gooch
  • Thomas Pieters
  • Charl Schwartzel
  • Brandon Grace
  • Laurie Canter

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Paul Higham
Contributor

Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website.  Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush.