AUGUSTA, Ga. — While 13 of the 89 players at this year’s Masters are members of LIV Golf, including defending champion Jon Rahm, five of the top 10 in the 2023 LIV rankings will spend this week at home as Augusta National Golf Club. struggles with questions of access to his course amid divisions in professional golf.
If the path is clear for PGA Tour players, it remains limited for LIV players.
Moreover, this dynamic does not appear to be changing any time soon. Augusta National President Fred Ridley was evasive Wednesday when asked about potential criteria created specifically for the Saudi tour.
“I think it will be difficult to establish any type of points system that has any connection to the rest of the golf world, because it is fundamentally, not totally, but for the most part, a workshop closed,” Ridley said during his speech. annual Masters press conference.
As it stands, LIV player entry into the Masters is mostly limited to past major successes. The only way for a LIV player to earn a spot is to hold champion status at Augusta (lifetime) or another major (five-year exemption) or to finish in the top four at a major in the LIV. ‘last year.
While individual winners of full-points PGA Tour events receive Masters invitations, LIV winners do not. And although PGA Tour players can accumulate points in the Official World Golf Rankings based on their results, LIV is not recognized by the OWGR and does not receive points.
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As a result, prominent LIV players fell in the rankings – Cam Smith to 68th, Bryson DeChambeau to 210th and Dustin Johnson to 336th.
The only LIV players remaining in the world top 50 are No. 3 Rahm, No. 19 Tyrrell Hatton and No. 33 Brooks Koepka. Rahm and Hatton only recently joined LIV, while Koepka won the PGA Championship last year and finished T2 at the Masters.
LIV had previously applied for recognition of the OWGR, but withdrew its application after the committee rejected its request. The committee, of which Augusta National is a member, along with other golf governing bodies, cited a lack of promotion and relegation in the league and questioned the league’s team competition.
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Ridley said Wednesday that Augusta National still believes OWGR is “a legitimate determinant of who the best players in the game are.”
This position is essentially in direct opposition to the format and structure of LIV.
“Our goal is to have, as much as possible, the best golf course, the best players in the world,” Ridley said. “That said, we never had all the best players in the world because of the structure of our tournament. It’s an invitation. It’s a limited area, it’s a small area.
The Masters Committee may invite international players not otherwise qualified. This year, one place went to Joaquin Niemann, 25 years old. The Chilean, who has competed in four previous Masters, had spent 155 weeks of his career in the world top 50, including a peak of 15th, before dropping to 81st by the time his invitation was issued. Niemann competed in several non-LIV events that the Masters Committee believed were the basis for earning a spot in the field.
Ridley said Augusta maintains “a subjective consideration based on talent” and “can adjust as necessary.”
Special Masters invitations are reserved for international players only. So while Niemann is at Augusta this week, 2023 three-time LIV winner Taylor Gooch is not.
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(Fred Ridley Photo: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)