AUGUSTA National Golf Club, the custodians of the US Masters Tournament, said this week that they would keep “open their doors to LIV Golf’s biggest names”, who will be eligible to compete in the 2023 Masters if they meet the established qualifying criteria.
That was the right call, and some might say the only call.
The decision, which Reuters reported, is viewed as a major victory for the newly created LIV Golf Series, despite the US PGA Tour having suspended players in the wake of them leaving the American circuit.
LIV Golf has signed on some of the world’s best players, leading to a simmering feud within the sport, Reuters said.
In making the announcement that the LIV Golf players, who make the cut, will be invited to the Masters, Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley in a statement said: “Our focus is to honour the tradition of bringing together a preeminent field of golfers this coming April.
“We have reached a seminal point in the history of our sport. At Augusta National, we have faith that golf, which has overcome many challenges through the years, will endure again.”
Under the current criteria LIV Golf’s Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Bubba Watson, Patrick Reed and Charl Schwartzel will feature in the field from April 6 to 9 at Augusta National, having qualified for the season’s first major as past Masters champions. A win at Augusta comes with a lifetime exemption.
British Open champion Cameron Smith, former US Open and PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka and former US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau will also receive invitations, courtesy of their five-year Masters exemptions.
The Masters criteria also takes in the top-50 of the official world golf rankings as at the end of 2022. Currently this includes LIV Golf’s Abraham Ancer, Talor Gooch, Harold Varner III, Jason Kokrak, Kevin Na and Louis Oosthuizen.
Augusta National’s stand might be viewed with some distaste by those who align themselves with the American Tour, but from a neutral’s standpoint, it was probably the right thing to do.
To leave out some of the world’s leading players from the event would have diluted the Masters’ standing as a genuine Major championship – and that is regardless of whether they accept it or not. It is a fact.
By omitting players like British Open champion Smith, four-time Major winner Koepka and Johnson, who has won 24 US PGA Tour titles, including two Majors, would not only have had the Masters deny its patrons from watching the very best in action and presenting a field with the leading players in it, but it would also have given players like Rory McIlroy and Company and unfair advantage of trying to win the tournament.
A field with players like Smith, Koepka and Johnson absent, never mind the other Major winners and up-and-coming in the LIV Golf ranks, can only be deemed as weak, and one gets the feeling that Augusta National does not want that, given their stand to allow all those who will be eligible to compete in April.
This is something that the British Open has already noted, with the R&A having indicated that LIV Golf players who meet their qualifying standards will be welcome.
The same cannot be said of the US Open and the US PGA Championship at this time, as they have not yet confirmed whether they will be changing their entry criteria.
Ridley added: “As we have said in the past, we look at every aspect of the tournament each year and any modifications or changes to invitation criteria for future tournaments will be announced in April.”
