{"id":430633,"date":"2025-09-17T07:21:59","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T07:21:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/430633\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T07:21:59","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T07:21:59","slug":"phil-mickelsons-liv-golf-2026-recruitment-drive-begins-hed-look-great-in-a-hyflyers-uniform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/430633\/","title":{"rendered":"Phil Mickelson’s LIV Golf 2026 recruitment drive begins: “He’d look great in a HyFlyers uniform”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Multiple major champion <\/strong>Phil Mickelson<\/strong><\/a> says Jackson Koivun would look great in a HyFlyers uniform.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 20-year-old amateur has been extremely impressive during his maiden PGA Tour<\/a> season, racking up five top-15 finishes from seven starts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last week, he threatened to upstage the US Ryder Cup stars at the Procore Championship but ultimately finished three behind champion Scottie Scheffler<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Koivun has already secured his playing rights on the PGA Tour by finishing top of their university programme.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Mickelson clearly feels Koivun could have a future with the PIF-backed LIV<\/a>, describing the golfer as “an amazing talent”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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“And destined for greatness,” Mickelson wrote on X. “He would also look great in a HyFlyers outfit.”<\/p>\n

Tongue-in-cheek Mickelson signed off his post with a wink emoji, hinting that he may not be serious.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Koivun, who played a starring role for the US Walker Cup team that thrashed Great Britain and Ireland 17-9 at Cypress Point<\/a>, won’t be turning professional anytime soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He has deferred his PGA Tour membership to study for another year at Auburn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Phil <\/p>\n

Phil Mickelson<\/p>\n

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Koivun acknowledged last week in California that he’s feeling more comfortable on the biggest stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I feel like I’ve gotten to that point where it’s become easier to play golf on the PGA Tour,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The more you put yourself in these situations the easier it is to get comfortable quicker.”<\/p>\n

LIV Golf are on the hunt for new players.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their 2026 campaign begins, as ever, under the lights in Saudi Arabia in February.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Former Open champion Henrik Stenson, Mito Pereira, Yubin Jang, Anthony Kim and Frederik Kjettrup were among the full-time players that got relegated this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the past, team captains such as Stenson were granted a reprieve – but the rule has been removed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is understood the rule change is part of the breakaway’s push to finally achieve accreditation from the Official World Golf Rankings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As of this week, there are no LIV Golf players inside the OWGR for the first time since the league’s inception<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Which players will LIV Golf target?<\/p>\n

LIV Golf’s recruitment drive for the 2025 season saw them make a few new additions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Northern Ireland’s Tom McKibbin joined Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII outfit and secured four top-10 finishes on his debut season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yubin Jang, Frederik Kjettrup, Luis Masaveu and Josele Ballester also joined.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jang and Kjettrup got relegated, whilst Masaveu is without a team after he was replaced by Ballester in Sergio Garcia’s outfit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It wouldn’t be unreasonable to suggest that LIV Golf could target Tony Finau<\/a>, Jason Day<\/a> and Tom Kim<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Tom <\/p>\n

Tom McKibbin<\/p>\n

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All three were approached in 2022 and Finau was said to have agreed a move, only for the deal to collapse at the last minute.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Day seemed fairly receptive to a move, but was reportedly told his injury problems meant he wasn’t a good fit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most important task over the next few weeks for LIV is tying Bryson DeChambeau<\/a> down to a new contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like Brooks Koepka, DeChambeau’s contact expires at the end of 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Multiple major champion Phil Mickelson says Jackson Koivun would look great in a HyFlyers uniform.\u00a0 The 20-year-old amateur…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[2826,4299,5227,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-430633","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-liv-golf","10":"tag-phil-mickelson","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115218438970370032","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}