Valderrama Winner Adrian Otaegui To Make LIV Golf Return

The Spaniard competes in the Team Championship fresh from a dominant performance on the DP World Tour

Adrian Otaegui plays a shot in the 2022 Mallorca Open
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mike Hall
By Mike Hall
published

Less than two weeks after Adrian Otaegui claimed a historic victory in the DP World Tour’s Andalucia Masters at Valderrama, the Spaniard has been named in the field for the season-closing LIV Golf Team Championship at Trump National Doral in Florida.

The 29-year-old last competed in LIV Golf's inaugural season in Boston in early September, where he finished a disappointing 45th in the individual competition. It would have been easy to assume that would mark his final appearance after three outings, but that was before he showed the form of his life with a six-shot win in his homeland.

Video: What Is LIV Golf

Despite Otaegui’s dominance in that tournament, there were suggestions that his feat was being undermined by the DP World Tour through its alleged failure to give it the coverage it warranted. Players including Scott Hend and fellow LIV Golf player Lee Westwood took to social media to voice their disapproval on the perceived lack of coverage. Meanwhile, Alejandro Larrazabal, brother of one-time LIV Golf player Pablo, even suggested DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley should resign over the matter. 

It was the latest controversy concerning LIV Golf players on the DP World Tour following previous suggestions that players from the Saudi-backed organisation taking part on the Tour had received different treatment to others. One such incident was in June when LIV Golf players where grouped together in the BMW International Open. 

The publicity generated by Otaegui's win - both in the dominant nature of the performance and the subsequent controversy - could well have influenced LIV Golf’s decision to reintroduce him for the final event of the season. Otaegui joins Torque GC, who he represented in London and Boston, as the team battle for a purse of $50 million and the first prize of $16 million. Meanwhile, Otaegui isn’t the only returning player. South African Hennie Du Plessis is also named in the 48-man field for his first tournament since the Bedminster event in July.

Mike Hall
Mike Hall
Writer

Mike has over 25 years of experience in journalism, including writing on a range of sports throughout that time, such as golf, football and cricket. Now a freelance staff writer for Golf Monthly, he is dedicated to covering the game's most newsworthy stories. 


He has written hundreds of articles on the game, from features offering insights into how members of the public can play some of the world's most revered courses, to breaking news stories affecting everything from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to developmental Tours and the amateur game. 


Mike grew up in East Yorkshire and began his career in journalism in 1997. He then moved to London in 2003 as his career flourished, and nowadays resides in New Brunswick, Canada, where he and his wife raise their young family less than a mile from his local course. 


Kevin Cook’s acclaimed 2007 biography, Tommy’s Honour, about golf’s founding father and son, remains one of his all-time favourite sports books.

Latest