Both the Masters and the Open Championship will permit LIV golfers who qualify for the tournaments to compete. The R&A and Augusta National both independently reached the same conclusion, a seemingly fair result as the fledgling LIV Tour seems more exhibition than competition at worst, at best a wtered down version of the PGA or DP World Tours.
To that end, Augusta National announced – in their usual gracious and measured way – the following:
“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. 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.”
Similarly, the Open rightfully will remain truly OPEN…to all:
“”We’ll go public in January/February with what we are going to do with regard to LIV golfers. But if you want a guide, go back to what I said in July. We’re not banning anyone. We are not going to betray 150 years of history and have the Open not be open,” R&A CEO Martin Slumbers to Golf Digest in October. “”What we will do is ensure that there are appropriate pathways and ways to qualify. I’m looking forward to seeing Cam Smith tee up around 9:40 a.m. on the first day of the Open next year. The Open needs to set itself aside from what’s going in terms of disagreements and make sure we stay true to our principle, which is to have the best players in the world competing.”
