LIV Golf Super-Sub Drafted In After Sam Horsfield Withdraws

LIV Golf’s debut in Australia was deemed a huge success by many of its players, but it didn’t go the way Majesticks GC’s Sam Horsfield had planned as the Englishman had to withdraw due to injury after the second round.

There is little time to recover before the next event in the schedule, this week’s tournament at Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore. Unfortunately for Horsfield, it comes too soon for him to line up alongside teammates Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Henrik Stenson.

Replacing him in the line-up is a man already familiar to Poulter and Westwood, fellow Englishman Laurie Canter. In LIV Golf's inaugural tournament at London’s Centurion Club, Canter was on the same team as Poulter, Westwood and the man he replaces this week. He retained his slot for the second tournament, in Portland, Oregon, before being replaced by newcomer Henrik Stenson.

Following the Swede's arrival, Canter moved to Martin Kaymer’s Cleeks GC for the remainder of the season. He was then one of seven players dropped ahead of season two of the circuit, but has played three times in 2023, again on Cleeks GC, after Kaymer missed the start of the season with injury.

Canter has contributed relatively moderate results in his LIV Golf career so far, with two finishes of 11th his best in 2022 and his finish of 15th at LIV Golf Orlando his highest so far this year.

He rejoins a team that has failed to reach expectations in the four 2023 tournaments. Majesticks GC began the season in underwhelming fashion, finishing 11th at LIV Golf Mayakoba, and it got worse in the next event in Tuscon, where they finished bottom.

An improvement in Orlando saw the team reach sixth helped by Stenson’s finish of 11th in the individual event with Horsfield one place above him. Any optimism the team gained from that tournament would have been tempered in Australia, though, where Majesticks GC once again finished 11th to leave them bottom of the team standings heading into this week’s tournament.