The Arizona State-to-LIV Golf pipeline has another addition.
Josele Ballester, the 21-year-old reigning U.S. Amateur champion who finished his college career with the Sun Devils last week, has signed with LIV Golf and will join Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs GC at 2025 LIV Golf Virginia, which begins Friday. Ballester and LIV Golf have been connected for some time, dating to before his U.S. Amateur triumph last summer at Hazeltine National in Minnesota.
With his amateur career in the rearview, he’s turning pro and joining LIV Golf, arguably a bigger signing than any the league had in the offseason.
‘First and foremost, I want to thank my family, coaches, friends, and Arizona State University for supporting me and believing in me to make it to this step of my career,” Ballester said in a release. “I am very excited about the opportunity to join Fireballs GC and continue to learn from Sergio and other greats.”
Ballester is the latest in a long line of Sun Devils to compete for LIV Golf, including new teammate David Puig, who also joined LIV Golf following a stellar amateur career. Jon Rahm, Phil Mickelson, Paul Casey and Matt Jones are other LIV players who played collegiately at Arizona State.
He’ll replace fellow Spaniard Luis Masaveu on the Fireballs’ roster. Masaveu, who made the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur last year and is good friends with Ballester, will compete this week at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in place of Puig, who is sidelined with an injury.
Ballester won one time as a senior, taking medalist honors at the Fighting Illini Invitational in the fall. He helped Arizona State finish first after the stroke-play portion of the 2025 NCAA Men’s Golf Championship at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa last week, though the Sun Devils fell in the quarterfinals of match play.
He finished he season ranked fifth in the NCAA golf rankings, placing T-4 at NCAAs and adding a pair of top-10 finishes in the Big 12 Championship and NCAA Bremerton Regional.
Ballester finished third in the PGA Tour University Class of 2025 standings, earning a Korn Ferry Tour card in the process. By signing with LIV Golf, he forfeits that card, and everyone else gets bumped up a spot in the standings. Texas A&M’s Phichaksn Maichon is the biggest benefactor, moving from sixth to fifth and earning full Korn Ferry Tour status for the remainder of the year and an exemption into the final stage of PGA Tour Q-School.
He played in three PGA Tour events this season, finishing T-17 in the Mexico Open at VidantaWorld and missing the cut at the WM Phoenix Open and Masters, where he made headlines after urinating in Rae’s Creek on the 13th hole, Azalea. He would end up missing the cut at Augusta National Golf Club.
Ballester will tee it up next week at Oakmont in the 2025 U.S. Open, as he doesn’t have to remain an amateur to use the exemption he earned for winning the U.S. Amateur. But this week, he makes his professional debut for LIV Golf.
