AUGUSTA — For the first time since the inception of the LIV Golf League in 2022, its CEO has been invited to the Masters this week. But that outreach has not extended to the tournament offering direct access into the Masters for LIV players.
Changes to the qualification criteria are typically announced on the eve of the Masters, which begins Thursday at Augusta National, and none were offered Wednesday during chairman Fred Ridley’s annual pre-tournament news conference.
But Ridley, while not offering a direct spot for LIV Golf players, did call for reunification of the game and said the best players need to come together at more than just the four major championships.
“Some of the issues that have been raised in connection with world golf rankings, and that is pathways for players to come and go on the LIV Tour as well as the team aspect of the LIV Golf, certainly creates some concern in that regard,” Ridley said, noting the Official World Golf Ranking’s October 2023 denial of accreditation to LIV Golf.
He also acknowledged that the U.S. Open and the British Open have extended one qualifying spot into their championships this year (potentially two next year) via LIV Golf’s individual points standings.
“As it relates to the USGA and the R&A, they certainly act independently. We respect their decisions,” he said. “We are an invitational tournament. We have historically considered special cases for invitations for international players, which is how Joaquin Niemann [from Chile and a two-time winner this year on LIV Golf] was invited, or why he was invited, the last couple years.
“We feel we can deal with that issue, whether it's a LIV player or a player on some other tour that might not otherwise be eligible for an invitation, that we can handle that with a special invitation.”
There are 12 LIV Golf players in the field this week, seven of whom have won the Masters and thus exempt for life: Jon Rahm, Sergio Garcia, Bubba Watson, Phil Mickelson, Charl Schwartzel, Patrick Reed and Dustin Johnson.
Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Cam Smith are in via winning major championships in the past five years. Tyrrell Hatton finished top 12 at last year’s Masters and was also top 50 in the OWGR at the end of 2024. Niemann is the only LIV player who did not otherwise qualify.
All of this continues to shine a light on the lack of progress in the men’s professional game to bring the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia—which backs LIV Golf—together to form some sort of alliance under PGA Tour Enterprises, a nearly two-year endeavor.
“We talk about reunification all the time,” Ridley said. “And when I think about reunification, I think about ... having all of the great players of the game playing against each other more than just a few times a year.
“I'm not really in a position to say what form that should take as far as how the two organizations should come together, what legal structure that may be or what the financial aspects of that may be, but what I would do and what I am doing is just encouraging again—sometimes if you start kind of at eye level, and that is to encourage cooperation and trying to figure out a way to get something done, regardless of what the structure of it is, to where everyone can play together again.
“So I’m going to continue to be saying that and encouraging the leaders of the organizations involved to try to work together to come up with a solution. But I think we all agree that four times a year is not enough to have the great players of the game together.”
Ridley acknowledged that new LIV CEO Scott O’Neil is on site and was invited by the Masters—which is unlike his predecessor, Greg Norman, who attended each of the past two years while securing a patron badge.
“Scott is here, and we’re pleased to have him as our guest,” Ridley said. “Although I don’t have any specific plans to meet with him, I know that we will have some discussions with him, and we’re happy that he’s here.”
Although it is unlikely that changes to the Masters qualification criteria would occur in time for 2026, it is not out of the question. Ridley said it is routinely studied at the end of the tournament.
He was specifically asked about the exemptions given to winners of fall PGA Tour events and the possibility of extending invites to prominent events around the world, specifically the DP World Tour’s BMW PGA Championship.
“As it relates to the fall tournaments ... it’s really a balance,” Ridley said. “We think it’s important to win a PGA Tour tournament, and we have for many years recognized that by granting an invitation to the winner of each tournament.
“But like we do every year, and I’ve said this I think every year in this press conference, we will have a thorough examination of our qualifications at the end of the year—or after the tournament this year, and we may make some changes.
“Not necessarily that, but some years we do make changes, some years we don’t. I think [the] comment about a couple of international tournaments is well-founded, and that will be part of our examination.”
This year’s Masters field is at 95 after the withdrawal of past champions Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh due to injury. It is the most since 97 players completed in 2015.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as LIV Golfers Will Not Have Direct Path to Masters, But Chairman Calls for Unification.
