Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler reportedly commit to LIV Golf Invitational Series; odds TBA for inaugural London event

The controversial Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series stages its first event this week in London. The biggest-name player to commit to that "tour" so far has been former world No. 1 Dustin Johnson, but according to a Golf Channel report from Rich Lerner, both Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler will also commit. Neither is in the field for this week's PGA Tour stop, the RBC Canadian Open. They aren't technically in the field for the London event as of this writing, either. The full field will be released at some point today.

Mickelson hasn't played a PGA Tour event since the late-January Farmers Insurance Open. He has become a bit of a pariah on the Tour because of his original comments regarding the Saudis and their new big-money venture. Mickelson was not named in the initial list of confirmed competitors last week by LIV Golf Investments, but a few spots were left open for this week's tournament at Centurion Club outside London. It's still not even clear if Lefty will play next week's U.S. Open, the only major he hasn't won.

The initial list of 42 players in the field included Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Kevin Na, Louis Oosthuizen, Ian Poulter, Charl Schwartzel and Lee Westwood. Na resigned from the PGA Tour over the weekend. The final six spots are to be filled by players invited by CEO Greg Norman and qualifiers from an Asian Tour event. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has previously threatened Tour players with suspensions and possibly a lifetime ban if they decide to play LIV Golf events.

Mickelson's agent Steve Loy acknowledged in April that Mickelson had requested a release from the PGA Tour to play in the LIV Golf series opener.

It's a 54-hole event with no cuts that features 48 players on 12 four-man teams and a $20 million individual purse. The winner will earn $4 million. There will also be shotgun starts in order to fit the events in a shorter time window, along with a team component.

A snake draft will be held Tuesday so that the 12 team captains will fill out their rosters. Odds should be released after that. Golf fans can stream the event on the company's website, as well as YouTube and Facebook. Arlo White, the voice of the Premier League in the USA for nearly a decade, will handle lead play-by-play duties.

Which 2022 Fantasy Football sleepers, breakouts and busts should you target and fade? And which QB shocks the NFL with a top-five performance? Join SportsLine now to get Fantasy Football cheat sheets for every single position, all from the model that called Jonathan Taylor's huge season, and find out.