Nine no longer live on the LIV Tour

The cannibalization of the LIV Tour is officially underway.

LIV Tour officials this week announced the names of 45 of the 48 participants in the second event of the Saudi-backed tour, being held next week at Pumpkin Ridge.

With the addition of six names mostly from the PGA Tour, the 48-player limitation meant that nine of the LIV Tour originals had to go.

On Thursday we all found out who those nine are likely to be.

The nine players apparently being jettisoned by LIV, none of them huge international names, are: Oliver Bekker, Ratchanon Chantananuwat, Oliver Fisher, Pablo Larrazabal, Viraj Madappa, Andy Ogletree, David Puig, JC Ritchie, and Kevin Yuan.

At Pumpkin Ridge, their places will be taken by Brooks Koepka, Abraham Ancer, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed, Yuki Inamori, and Pat Perez. All are former PGA Tour regulars except for Inamori, who has been a regular on the Japanese Tour.

The departing names include a couple of surprises. Bekker (99) and Larrazabal (70) both stand among the top 100 in this week’s Official World Golf Ranking, and both did fairly well in the initial LIV Golf event in London.

Bekker finished seventh and Larrazabal 13th in the individual competition. Ritchie was also top 20 in the individual scoring in London.

Since three Pumpkin Ridge openings are yet unfilled, it is possible that a couple of the detached nine may still be re-admitted into that field.

However, the spots are probably being held vacant in the hope that LIV spokesperson Greg Norman can lure another player or two away from the PGA Tour.

At least six are sure to find their LIV experience to have been a brief one.

The additions of Koepka (19), Ancer (20), DeChambeau (30), and Reed (38) will give the Portland field 18 of the world’s top 100 players, two more than were in London.

But none are ranked among the top 15, only four are among the top 25, and eight are among the top 50. Four of that top 100 rank between 91 and 100.