More new faces are set to join LIV Golf as time ticks towards the start of the league’s second full season in Mexico.
Cleeks GC captain Martin Kaymer confirmed to NCG that Kalle Samooja was joining his side, leaving one more spot available.
The German said his fourth and final place will be taken by a European player and “there are a few names in the pot” to be considered before kick-off on February 2.
“I know him a little bit from the European Tour back in the day,” Kaymer said of Samooja, who won the Porsche European Open on the DP World Tour in 2022.
“But we have the same management and when I saw him a week ago when we had a photo shoot in Miami, we spent a bit of time together and he seemed to be a really nice guy, a really good player, solid guy.
“We’re still looking for the fourth which we will probably announce within the next few days.
“There are a few names in the pot, so we’ll see who will join the Cleeks, but we’re definitely going to have a good team and a good team environment, nice guys that I know well.
“It’s going to be a European team. From the get-go, that was the goal to have a European Cleeks team,” he added.
“That is the route that we want to go, but it’s tricky because so many things need to be considered, especially for the people who join, a lot less than we had to consider back in the day when we had the chance to join LIV.
“But there are still a lot of uncertainties for most of the guys and I would like to give them as much information as possible to make their decision as easy as possible.”
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The two-time major winner Kaymer saw his former teammate Bernd Wiesberger head back to the DP World Tour at the end of 2023, having lost his LIV contract for finishing 41st in the individual year-long standings.
This left just Kaymer and Richard Bland as Graeme McDowell headed for Smash GC to play with Brooks Koepka, Jason Kokrak and now Talor Gooch.
And then there were two, until January 8 when the Cleeks seemed to let slip the signing of Samooja when a picture of a team photoshoot was put on Instagram. This was swiftly deleted.
With not long until LIV heads to Mayakoba for the season opener, there are currently three teams who are yet to fill all four spots in 2024.
Ripper GC has been linked with the signing of Lucas Herbert, another Australian player, and the Iron Heads captained by Kevin Na are also one man short.
There is also the small matter of Jon Rahm who is set to captain a brand new team which is rumoured to be named Legion XIII GC.
NOW READ: Who plays where? Keeping up with LIV Golf’s team reshuffle
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