INTERNATIONAL SERIES CHAMP OGLETREE JOINS HYFLYERS GC

Andy Ogletree, No. 1 in the final International Series rankings in 2023, will join Phil Mickelson’s HyFlyers GC for the 2024 LIV Golf League season, the team announced Monday.

The signing of Ogletree, the 2019 U.S. Amateur champion, fills the HyFlyers’ roster vacancy created by the relegation of James Piot, winner of the 2021 U.S. Amateur. Ogletree joins Mickelson, Cameron Tringale and Brendan Steele on the all-American roster, which is now set for 2024.

"Andy is one of the most impressive young players in the game who has earned his spot on LIV," Mickelson said. "The work he has continued to put in and the resiliency he showed this past year in creating his own success was awesome to see. He makes the HyFlyers a contender next year and just as importantly, Andy fits in perfectly with everyone on the team."

Ogletree earned his LIV Golf spot for 2024 by finishing first in the season-long International Series standings. Ogletree was the dominant player on the International Series, a set of 10 elevated tournaments on the Asian Tour supported by LIV Golf. The 25-year-old from Mississippi produced two wins – in Qatar in February and England in August – and earned 1,101,828.33 in prize money, nearly $525,000 more than his closest pursuer. He also was the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit winner in 2023.

“Andy has played some outstanding golf this year and has been head and shoulders above his peers on The International Series,” said Asian Tour Commissioner and CEO Cho Minn Thant.

Ogletree, who competed in LIV Golf’s inaugural Invitational Series event in London in 2022, played in three LIV Golf tournaments in 2023 as a reserve. He finished sixth on the points leaderboard in DC, shooting 7 under as a starter for injured Crushers DC player Paul Casey. He replaced injured Majesticks co-captain Lee Westwood for the final round in Tulsa, shooting 62. And he started in Orlando as a replacement for Crusher GC’s Anirban Lahiri, finishing 43rd on the points leaderboard.

Despite the limited starts, he finished in the Open Zone of the point standings (Nos. 25-44), enabling him to sign with any team that had a vacant spot instead of waiting for the draft.

"I started getting some phone calls and it was kind of like college recruiting all over again," Ogletree said. “A few teams wanted to meet and I had conversations with some of the captains and it followed from there. Since LIV Golf owns the teams, the final contract had to be approved and all of this was navigated over the last few weeks.

"I was in a fortunate situation being able to travel with LIV during the year. I was at every tournament as a reserve. I was seeing how every tournament works and the team dynamic and the support structure they put in place. I was able to ask a lot of questions and get opinions from different players. And I liked the way Phil went about things and to get that knowledge from one of the greatest of all time is an opportunity I couldn’t turn down."

In addition to winning the U.S. Amateur at Pinehurst in 2019, Ogletree also played for the winning U.S. team at the 2019 Walker Cup, and was the low amateur at the 2020 Masters, turning pro shortly thereafter.