Here Are 7 LIV Stars You Have Already Forgotten About

One of the reasons I’ve been against LIV is that professional golf is not big enough to be chopped into separate products. Our attention spans are getting shorter and watching golf isn’t popular enough to grow when the talent is split into two sections.

With that being the case, the vast majority of eyeballs are fixated on the majors and certain PGA Tour events. Beyond that, not many people are watching pro golf.

That has created an interesting situation with many LIV players.

Many of these guys were among the most notable characters in the game. Now, in some cases, they have faded away as they play their golf in relative anonymity and then barely make a whimper in their major starts (if they even qualify for them).

For whatever reason—whether it’s money, lack of drive, injury, age or something else—these guys have fallen off the map. It’s a shame because golf is better when these players are in the mix.

Here are seven guys we are all forgetting about. For each player, I include their Data Golf map to show the Strokes Gained numbers behind their struggles.

1. Dustin Johnson

It’s nice that Dustin Johnson got to celebrate with the Florida Panthers as they won another Stanley Cup, because he won’t be lifting any meaningful trophies any time soon.

Just over four years ago, Johnson was the No. 1 player in Data Golf. He had just won the 2020 Masters and was playing some of the best golf of his life.

He’s now well outside the top 150 (a reminder that this takes into account all tournament golf played, including LIV). Johnson has missed the cut in six of the past eight majors. And he isn’t even playing well in LIV events.

I get that DJ just turned 41 years old. I get that he took a boatload of cash. I get that he has a family. I get that he won two majors and accomplished a lot in the game already.

But, man, he really fell off a cliff.

2. Cameron Smith

This one is deeply upsetting for multiple reasons. In fact, it hurts far more than anyone else on this list.

Cam Smith won the 2022 Open Championship in epic fashion. He was a top-five player in the world who got the job done with his short game more than raw power. It took him some time to develop into a top player, which was admirable. Smith was a fiery competitor, recklessly aggressive and fantastic to watch.

Just three years later, he’s an afterthought. Smith has missed the last four major cuts. He’s a borderline top-20 player … on LIV. That makes him a borderline top-70 player in the world.

Smith is nine years younger than Johnson. He could still have great golf in his future but we haven’t been seeing it for a long time now. It feels like he is mailing it in these days.

3. Brooks Koepka

While Koepka did win the 2023 PGA Championship after switching to LIV, he has now gone nine consecutive majors without a top-10 finish.

That is tough to imagine for a guy who used to rise up in nearly every major on the calendar.

It’s true that Koepka was never a dominant week-to-week force on the Tour but the golf he has played over the past three years is, on the whole, the worst of his career since he broke onto the scene in 2016.

Looking at him down at No. 72 in Data Golf is depressing. And without him being a factor in majors, there isn’t much reason to think about Koepka.

He turned 35 recently but could still have some gas left in the tank. Let’s hope there is some there.

4. Phil Mickelson

I hesitated to put Phil on here because of his presence on YouTube and uncanny ability to make the dumbest hot takes possible.

However, it’s on a relative scale here. It’s more about exposure than stats.

Mickelson won the 2021 PGA. He was on top of the world. Funny enough, he wasn’t playing good golf (at all) that season but he caught lightning in a bottle and was rightfully celebrated for being the oldest golfer to ever win a major.

Then he went off the deep end. In 2022, it was a year of Phil embarrassing himself.

Then he showed up at the 2023 Masters and … almost won? Wait, that can’t be right.

But since then, he has struggled to stay relevant. On the course, he has no top-40 finishes in his past 10 major starts. Off the course, the average golf fan has lost a lot of respect for him. He is now getting deep into political discourse brain rot on X (Twitter), which, of course he is.

Either way, everyone is thinking about him way less than we used to.

5. Talor Gooch

Oh, yeah! Remember him?

By the time Gooch left for LIV, he had built himself into a top-30 player in the world. Was he a superstar on the level of the previous three names on this list? No. Was he a solid player who could make the Tour Championship and compete for Ryder Cup teams? Yes.

Gooch is a distant memory at this point. He’s outside the top 100 in Data Golf and has only competed in one major the past two years. Is he a good LIV player? Not particularly.

He took the money and moved on with his life.

6. Louis Oosthuizen

I’m old enough to remember a time (way, way, back in 2021) when Oosthuizen had three top-three major finishes in a single season. He probably should have won the U.S. Open that year.

That season put him up to No. 3 in Data Golf.

Since that year, which was his last on the Tour, here are Oosthuizen’s major starts: WD-T60-CUT-CUT-WD-T23-CUT. He is now outside the top 100.

Like Gooch, he’s barely getting any major starts. The only difference is that Oosthuizen can play the Open Championship until he’s 60 because of his past champion status.

In fairness, Oosthuizen is about to turn 43. Similar to a few older guys I decided not to put on this list (Ian Poulter, Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia, etc.), it made sense for Oosthuizen to ride off into the sunset on LIV.

7. Kevin Na

We’re reaching a little deeper for this last one but he is worth a mention.

When LIV started, Kevin Na was No. 37 in the world. He played in all four majors and had a couple of top-25 finishes in 2022.

Na has not played in a major since then. He hasn’t even come close to winning a LIV event. And he is way outside the top 200 in the world.

This is a guy who won five times on the Tour and did a phenomenal job of keeping his card each season.

Nowadays, he wouldn’t even be able to do that. Honestly, I completely forgot Kevin Na still played golf. I saw his name doing research for this story and had a flashback like seeing an old photo of a high school classmate.

What do you think of these players? Can any of them turn things around?

Let me know below in the comments.

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