Top amateur Josele Ballester to join LIV Golf and Fireballs GC

It is a busy time relative to amateur golf.

The NCAA Championships wrapped up recently and Golf’s Longest Day just took place. Amateurs were featured all over the place here.

News around amateurs is following as a result. Consider that Florida State’s Luke Clanton is making his professional debut, therefore leaving amateur status behind, this week at the RBC Canadian Open. Time moves for everyone.

While Clanton generated a lot of headlines in the amateur game so did Arizona State’s Josele Ballester. Rumors began to swirl that he was headed for a professional circuit as well and on Wednesday it was confirmed that he is joining LIV Golf and will be a part of Fireballs GC, the team led by Sergio Garcia.

Ballester, like Garcia, is Spanish and therefore there is an obvious common bond between them. Sergio seems rather excited to add him to his group.

“We are very excited about Josele joining the team,” said Sergio Garcia, captain of Fireballs GC. “Personally, I have known him (Josele) since he could pick up a golf club and he has worked with my father (Victor) as his coach throughout his golf career. Josele is going to be a great addition not only to the Fireballs but also to the LIV League and I can’t wait to be with him by his side as he makes his professional debut.”

Josele will debut this week at LIV Golf’s event in Virginia. It will be a busy month for him with the U.S. Open next week and LIV having another event in Dallas at the end of the month.

Much has been made about Ballester’s relationship with another Spaniard in Jon Rahm. Consider that beyond hailing from the same country that Rahm is also a former Sun Devil. It stands to reason that this connection served a role here. By the way, there are several Sun Devils sprinkled (say that five times fast) in LIV: Ballester, Rahm, David Puig, Phil Mickelson, Paul Casey and Matt Jones.

From a technical standpoint Ballester is replacing Luis Masaveu as a starter on Fireballs GC.