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<\/p>\nLIV Golf did not land any blockbuster signings in the offseason, but it was an attractive destination for young golf stars. <\/p>\n
A number of up-and-coming players have chosen LIV over the PGA Tour in recent years. Tom McKibbin signed with the Saudi-backed league despite the disapproval of fellow countryman Rory McIlroy, and Laurie Canter chose LIV after just securing his tour card.<\/p>\n
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Phil Mickelson\u2019s HyFlyers team was the latest to bring some youthful energy into the mix. The six-time major winner said his team needed to get younger, and they did so by signing the reigning NCAA champion.<\/p>\n
He turned down the opportunity to play at The Masters in order to sign with LIV, and he explained his decision ahead of the season opener in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
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Photo by Tyler McFarland\/NCAA Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Michael La Sasso explains why he chose LIV Golf over The Masters<\/p>\n
Michael La Sasso shocked the golf world by turning down an opportunity to play The Masters in 2026 and instead signing with Mickelson\u2019s HyFlyers.<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old said that having the opportunity to learn from Mickelson was too good to turn down.<\/p>\n
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Speaking in a press conference before LIV Riyadh he said, \u201cOne of the things that went into my decision, when I was 10 years old starting to play golf, like, the goal for me was to play professional golf.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving people that have been very well-known in the golf space and are so experienced, and to be able to be a part of a team that\u2019s with Phil, somebody that\u2019s had so much experience, I feel like he\u2019ll be able to answer any question that I throw at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have the ability to be able to ask somebody that on a daily basis, that played a very big part in it for me because not every 21-year-old has the opportunity to be able to ask questions to those people. So that was a big factor for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think so far, I\u2019m so grateful that I made the decision, and I am very happy to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n
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LIV\u2019s team format gives the league a big advantage over the PGA Tour. Players are encouraged to share their knowledge to the less experienced players on their team, and putting players on teams gives them a platform to do exactly that.<\/p>\n
You can see why LIV would be an attractive prospect for someone like La Sasso.<\/p>\n
Michael La Sasso explains why LIV\u2019s team format will be \u2018easier\u2019 for him<\/p>\n
La Sasso joined LIV straight out of college, which has a team-based competition format. He\u2019s no stranger to working as part of a collective in what is typically a team sport.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why he thinks the transition to the pros will be easier for him on LIV than on the PGA Tour.<\/p>\n
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He said, \u201cYeah, I think that makes the transition a little bit easier. I feel like my golf has kind of taken off when I\u2019ve been in a team environment. For me, having a team around me was very appealing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve played good golf as a team. I like the camaraderie, kind of the friendly banter that goes back and forth between the guys. For me to have the opportunity to come play on a team environment for a professional career, I think that\u2019s the coolest thing ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
If he can learn from Mickelson and lean on his college experience, La Sasso should be set up nicely for success as a member of HyFlyers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LIV Golf did not land any blockbuster signings in the offseason, but it was an attractive destination for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,10658,201464,53097,3332,16336,99,210218],"class_list":["post-447420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-liv-golf","tag-michael-la-sasso","tag-opportunity","tag-pga-tour","tag-phil-mickelson","tag-sports","tag-team-format"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}