Laurie Canter didn’t win the South African Open on Sunday, but his playoff defeat comes with a pretty significant consolation prize: a spot in the Players Championship and the possibility of one in the Masters, too.
The Englishman will become the first player who competed on LIV Golf to play in a PGA Tour event (one that is not co-sanctioned) if he takes up his spot that is available to anyone who is among the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking as of Monday.
He began the week ranked 53rd and was projected to move into the top 50 via his second-place finish.
Canter played all of LIV Golf’s first season in 2022 and was a reserve player after that. He lost in a playoff at the LIV Golf Promotions event in the fall of 2023 and played the first two events on LIV’s schedule last year as a reserve.
The PGA Tour prohibits non-members who played any LIV events from competing on the Tour for a year past their last LIV event, a period of time that has passed for Canter.
Canter, 35, who won a DP World Tour event in Bahrain last month, is also in position to play in the Masters, which invites the top 50 in the OWGR at the end of March.
The fourth round of the South African Open was canceled due to weather and Canter took part in a playoff with co-54-hole leader Dylan Naidoo, who won on the first extra hole with a birdie.
Canter was already exempt for this summer’s British Open via his finish on the DP World Tour standings last year. The event offered three spots via the Open Qualifying Series which will go to the South African Naidoo, with Marco Penge and Darren Fichart also qualifying.
The New Zealand Open offered one spot which went to Australian Ryan Peake, who won the tournament Sunday.
This week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational also offers one spot in the Open to a player not otherwise exempt.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Former LIV Golfer Laurie Canter Earns Spot in PGA Tour’s Players Championship.
