Augusta National Golf Club chairman Fred Ridley introduced Tuesday that no modifications will likely be made to the group’s qualifying criteria forward of the 2023 Masters as invites to subsequent 12 months’s match are within the means of being made. As such, all eligible golfers will likely be allowed to compete within the Masters, no matter skilled affiliation.
“Regrettably, recent actions have divided men’s professional golf by diminishing the virtues of the game and the meaningful legacies of those who built it. Although we are disappointed in these developments, our focus is to honor the tradition of bringing together a preeminent field of golfers this coming April,” Ridley wrote.
“Therefore, as invitations are sent this week, we will invite those eligible under our current criteria to compete in the 2023 Masters Tournament. 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.”
While not laid out in print, Ridley right here is basically referring the eligibility of those that presently compete for LIV Golf. In whole, 16 LIV Golf gamers have certified for the Masters by means of its established criteria: previous champions, main championship exemptions and/or rating inside the highest 50 of the Official World Golf Rankings by 12 months finish.
This is similar criteria Augusta National has used for years, and LIV members had been equally eligible to play within the Masters final season.
Past Masters champions that at the moment play for LIV embody Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Bubba Watson, Charl Schwartzel and Sergio Garcia; all are granted lifetime exemptions. Cameron Smith, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka additionally qualify for the following handful of years based mostly on current main championship victories. However, for the opposite seven golfers — including younger gamers like Joaquin Niemann — future qualification will solely develop into tougher as LIV doesn’t obtain OWGR factors for its occasions.
As such, certified LIV golfers could play in dwindling numbers as years cross until eligibility criteria modifications or LIV is granted OWGR factors. Similarly, will probably be troublesome for added members of the LIV circuit to efficiently qualify sooner or later. For these at the moment within the area, a victory will grant them a lifetime invitation, however a extra attainable accomplishment could also be a top-12 end, which has traditionally include an invite into the next 12 months’s championship.