By Frank Pingue
(Reuters) -Former world number one Dustin Johnson and past major champion Sergio Garcia were listed among competitors for the opening LIV Golf Invitational Series event in a field released by the Saudi-backed league on Tuesday that did not include Phil Mickelson.
Among the other notables included are former world number ones Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer, as well as European Ryder Cup veteran Ian Poulter for the event that will be held June 9-11 at Centurion Club outside London.
The final six players in the 48-man field will be announced at a later date, LIV Golf said in a statement.
World number 13 Johnson, a two-times major champion, is the highest-ranked player in a field that currently includes 26 of the top 150 golfers in the world.
“Free agency has finally come to golf,” said LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman.
“This is an opportunity to start a movement that will change the course of history by bringing new and open competition to the sport we all love.
“The desire shown by the players to participate in LIV Golf demonstrates their emphatic belief in our model and confidence in what we’re building for the future.”
Six-times major champion Mickelson has been linked to LIV Golf for months but has been on a self-imposed hiatus from the sport since February — even skipping his title defence at the PGA Championship — amid backlash over comments he made about the breakaway tour.
The 51-year-old Mickelson’s public image took a hit when the author of an unauthorised biography said the American golfer told him he was willing to look past Saudi Arabia’s human rights record to gain economic leverage over the PGA Tour.
(Additional reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and Kim Coghill)
