LIV adds Florida State alum for second signing of a young player

LIV Golf is looking younger as it adds new players to the team rosters, the most recent Friday when the Cleeks announced it was signing Fredrik Kjetterup of Denmark, who finished among the top 10 in the PGA Tour University ranking at Florida State.

The Iron Heads two weeks ago signed 22-year-old Yubin Jang, the Korean Tour's player of the year in 2024 after winning twice and finishing runner-up five times.

“He’s going to be the next best Korean golfer,” said Kevin Na, the lead player of Iron Heads. "That's how much I believe in him. And I told him that, too.”

They are the only two players to have signed with the Saudi-backed league in the month of what the LIV Golf League refers to as free agency. Max Lee of Taiwan won the promotions event to also earn a spot.

Caleb Surratt was No. 10 in the amateur ranking when the 19-year-old at Tennessee joined LIV at the start of this year. He finished 41st in the standings, his best finish a tie for 12th. He made just over $2.7 million this year.

PGA Tour University was created to give college seniors a path to the PGA Tour. Kjetterup would have had Korn Ferry Tour access and he was exempt into the final stage of Q-school. Instead, he withdrew and joined LIV Golf.

Jang also withdrew from the final stage of Q-school and joined LIV.

Kjetterup won three times on the PGA Tour Americas in Canada after leaving Florida State. He earned $137,419 in nine starts. LIV Golf gives him access to $20 million tournaments, 54 holes with no cuts, with the top prize at $4 million and last place paying $50,000.

LIV Golf also is affiliated with the Asian Tour, and its International Series have $2 million purses. But the 24-year-old Dane would have to go through qualifying for the U.S. Open and British Open, or lead the Asian Tour to be considered for the PGA Championship.

He qualified for the U.S. Open this year and missed the cut.

Martin Kaymer, captain of the Cleeks, told British website Bunkered he believes LIV Golf could have a pathway to the majors down the road.

“What I’ve heard from the league is that it looks pretty good. Hopefully next year we have some kind of way of qualifying for majors,” Kaymer said. "We cannot say for sure this will happen. But he was fine with that.”

Kjetterup replaces Kalle Samooja, who was relegated from LIV after failing to finish among the top 44 in the standings of the 54-player league. No one else has been announced signing with LIV, where rosters must be set before the season starts in February.

___

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf