Phil Mickelson has exchanged one former U.S. Amateur champion for another.
After James Piot was relegated from the LIV Golf League following the 2023 season, Mickelson’s HyFlyers GC have signed Andy Ogletree for 2024. The roster is now complete as Ogletree will join Mickelson, Cameron Tringale and Brendan Steele.
“Andy is one of the most impressive young players in the game who has earned his spot on LIV,” Mickelson said. “The work he has continued to put in and the resiliency he showed this past year in creating his own success was awesome to see. He makes the HyFlyers a contender next year and just as importantly, Andy fits in perfectly with everyone on the team.”
Ogletree, 25, earned a guaranteed spot on a LIV team for 2024 after he finished first in the Asian Tour’s season-long International Series, a 10-event portion of tour’s schedule. The 2019 U.S. Amateur champion played LIV’s inaugural event in London in 2022 and teed it up in three events in 2023 as a reserve, where he finished sixth in Washington, D.C. and 43rd in Orlando. He also replaced an injured Lee Westwood for the final round in Tulsa. His sixth-place showing in D.C. was good enough to see him finish 43rd in the season-long points standings, meaning in just two full starts he earned more points than seven players who made at least 10 of 14 starts last season.
That Open Zone finish (Nos. 25-44 in the season standings) allowed Ogletree to sign for any team with an open spot and avoid the yet-to-be-announced LIV Golf Draft, which will decide where the three players from LIV Golf Promotions will play.
“I started getting some phone calls and it was kind of like college recruiting all over again,” Ogletree said. “A few teams wanted to meet and I had conversations with some of the captains and it followed from there. Since LIV Golf owns the teams, the final contract had to be approved and all of this was navigated over the last few weeks.”
“I was in a fortunate situation being able to travel with LIV during the year. I was at every tournament as a reserve. I was seeing how every tournament works and the team dynamic and the support structure they put in place. I was able to ask a lot of questions and get opinions from different players,” he added. “And I liked the way Phil went about things and to get that knowledge from one of the greatest of all time is an opportunity I couldn’t turn down.”
Three of the 12 teams – Cleeks GC, IronHeads GC and Ripper GC – in the league still have openings to fill. It has yet to be announced whether Jon Rahm will take over a new team or an already established side, like the Cleeks, who have two openings.