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B.Simply earlier than Christmas, Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership despatched out a discover explaining the apparent. All gamers who qualify for the 2023 Masters primarily based on the eligibility standards already established might be eligible to be invited to play within the Majors in his Championship in April. This ended all unsubstantiated hypothesis that Augusta would ban gamers from his Saudi-funded LIV golf sequence.
However an official assertion from Masters president Fred Ridley mentioned he would warmly welcome 16 LIV golfers to the Augusta Nationwide this spring. It is rather seemingly that it will likely be the final.
Take quick motion first. For Augusta to intervene within the sport’s ongoing civil struggle by ousting previous champions and eligible gamers just because they broke the established tour and launched into one other golf journey on the LIV. It is considerably absurd to consider that they had been making an attempt to shrink the sphere. Six of his gamers, together with 2020 winner Dustin Johnson, are sporting inexperienced jackets. Cameron Smith remains to be the British Open and Gamers champion. Brooks Koepka has his 4 wins in current majors. Bryson DeChambeau additionally gained the 2020 US Open. These are the gamers who belong to Augusta no matter who’s at the moment signing their paychecks. The Masters can be a a lot smaller occasion with out them.
Thus, with Ridley’s approval that Augusta is not going to change the principles halfway, 16 LIV golf gamers might be teeing up at Augusta in April. Winners, Gamers, 2022 Masters Prime Placers, Tour Championship Qualifiers, Prime 50 Official World Golf Rankings, and extra.
Masters adopted the letter of the rule. Phrases matter at Augusta, so after we mentioned “who certified for his championship on the finish of the earlier season’s Tour”, we meant qualifiers, not alternates. As such, not crediting Aaron Sensible, who changed Gooch from the Tour’s secondary listing with LIV dropouts at Eastlake, and Talla Gooch for qualifying by way of the Tour Championship on factors. (Sensible entered Augusta by way of the Prime 50 anyway, avoiding a really nasty controversy.)
The worth of those phrases results in the second key ingredient of Ridley’s Dec. 20 assertion. The chairman’s detrimental tone echoed over the route of LIV’s elite golf. Will probably be troublesome for a LIV participant who doesn’t but have a serious pedigree to enter Augusta in his 2024 and past.
“Sadly, current actions have divided skilled males’s golf and undermined the virtues of the sport and the significant legacy of those that constructed it,” Ridley mentioned with out hiding his implicit tuk tuk. . “Whereas we’re disillusioned by these developments, our focus is to honor our custom of bringing collectively a discipline of excellent golfers this April.”
This coming April. Its peculiarity is tough to overlook.
“Due to this fact, invites might be despatched out this week to ask anybody who qualifies by present requirements to the 2023 Masters match. Any amendments or modifications to the invitation standards for future tournaments might be introduced in April.”
The Masters needn’t explicitly ban it to make it more durable for LIV golfers to discover a spot on the tee sheet sooner or later. Whereas it would deal with the highest 50 by itself, Augusta has determined to bolster the worth of normal memberships in golf’s merit-based ecosystem and encourage gamers to remain true to the sport’s main excursions. , and rather more could be completed.
See phrases like “present requirements”. As Tiger Woods used to say, it is all in entrance of you. Ridley has all however promised an announcement concerning “fixes or modifications” to future invitation standards might be made when he sits down for his annual press convention on the eve of the Masters on April 5. Gooch-like interruptions It is likely to be so simple as together with a phrase like “eligible” to mess around with the semantics to forestall deceived gamers from slipping by the cracks. Alternatively, it could possibly be broader, utilizing tour-centric standards to surgically pave the way in which for LIV golfers to traverse, whereas encouraging membership in golf’s merit-based excursions. .
Now could be the proper time to alter your invite standards. The PGA Tour is making some drastic modifications, returning to its calendar yr schedule and pulling up 12 occasions to draw the world’s finest gamers extra usually. A particular association with its DP World Tour companions seeks to strengthen the golf ecosystem towards rogue invaders who siphon off golf expertise.
Whether or not LIV Golf is invited to attain factors within the Official World Golf Rankings will stop that participant from persevering with to free fall out of the all-important Prime 50 or assist them climb again up once more. Gamers reminiscent of Louis Oosthuizen, Harold Varner III, Kevin Na, Jason Kokrak, and Gooch are already barely clinging to high 50 standing, and shortly sufficient, Koepka is already wanting from the surface. , DeChambeau and Patrick Reed. It is value sufficient to outdo PGA Tour gamers in factors competitors.
The Masters needn’t explicitly ban it to make it more durable for LIV golfers to discover a spot on the tee sheet sooner or later. Whereas it would deal with the highest 50 by itself, Augusta has determined to bolster the worth of normal memberships in golf’s merit-based ecosystem and encourage gamers to remain true to the sport’s main excursions. , and rather more could be completed.
How do you incentivize loyalty? By providing the worth of the Masters invitations that want it.
Augusta can supply invites to high finishers from different qualifying-based excursions, together with circuits in Europe, Japan, Australia, Sunshine and Asia. Much like the Gamers’ Championship, it could supply exemptions to winners of DP World’s flagship BMW Championship. enhance. If his incumbent NCAA champion or his PGA Tour College winner enters golf’s long-established ecosystem and takes a assured shortcut to LIV’s exhibition sequence, it might supply a spot.
Whether or not Ridley tweaks its requirements or opts for a serious overhaul, one factor is obvious. The one assure that some LIV golfers will return to the Masters is to win a inexperienced jacket. They are going to know the place their future lies at Augusta earlier than they tee off on April sixth.
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