LIV Golf’s Kevin Na needs to ensure all LIV winners safe a spot within the 4 main championships, much like how PGA Tour winners routinely obtain invitations to Augusta Nationwide annually.
Na defined his reasoning in a current interview with Golf Month-to-month.
“Winners must be exempt, and I feel you are taking the highest 16 gamers or so. I feel if in case you have a season and also you end inside the highest 16, you need to be exempt into all 4 Majors,” Na mentioned.
“Loads of guys who’re Main champions and are exempt, they’re going to overlap, so top-10 isn’t sufficient. I don’t even suppose top-15 is sufficient, 16 is an effective quantity. I do know The Masters does it in order that in the event you win a golf match on the [PGA] Tour, then you definitely get in. I feel it must be simply the identical for LIV.
“In the event you win a LIV occasion, there are solely 13, then you need to be in all of the Majors as a result of that’s not straightforward to do. Plus, you’re going to have a number of winners, so that you’ll solely get 10 guys who win a match in a yr. And Jon Rahm goes to win one!”
You need to credit score Na for sticking up for his tour, however the 41-year-old American is improper in his evaluation. Whoever wins a LIV Golf occasion mustn’t obtain direct entry to all 4 main championships.
For starters, LIV occasions function solely 54 gamers every week, a a lot smaller subject dimension than every other skilled golf match performed all over the world. On prime of that, LIV has solely 54 holes of competitors, whereas the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour, and the Asian Tour — together with the 4 majors — function 72-hole competitions solely. Moreover, LIV employs a shotgun begin, the place every group of gamers start their spherical on a separate gap as an alternative of getting everybody begin on the first or tenth holes utilizing staggered tee occasions.
If that’s not sufficient, the workforce factor LIV additionally components in, as some gamers have mentioned that their technique modified when the workforce competitors was shut. That was a serious motive why the Official World Golf Rating (OWGR) didn’t award LIV Golf occasions OWGR factors within the first place: the workforce play factor threatened the integrity of the person competitors.
Now, critics will say, ‘However LIV Golf has so many main champions!’
Little doubt they do. However let’s face actuality right here. Exterior of Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith, Joaquin Niemann, and Tyrrell Hatton, which LIV participant may make a run at successful a serious championship? Perhaps Sergio Garcia and Louis Oosthuizen? DataGolf at present has all eight of those gamers ranked among the many prime 55 on the earth, so every of them can nonetheless compete on the highest degree regardless of their affiliation with the Saudi-backed circuit. Koepka and DeChambeau have confirmed that emphatically, successful the 2023 PGA Championship and the 2024 U.S. Open, respectively. They’re the one two lively LIV gamers to win a serious.
However once more, who else may win a serious? Certain, a participant like Talor Gooch could make a run however his main report will not be nice. The very best end of his main profession got here at Augusta in 2022, one month earlier than he joined LIV, when he tied for 14th.
The very fact is that LIV stays top-heavy for the time being, with these eight gamers rating in a class of their very own. Others are both one, effectively previous the prime of their careers, like Dustin Johnson or Phil Mickelson, or two, younger and unproven in professional occasions, like Caleb Surratt or Andy Ogletree.
However, the lads’s sport on the highest degree stays in peril. The game is split, with main winners competing on each the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, enjoying collectively solely 4 occasions per yr, if that. So what’s the answer?
Nicely, going off of the purpose Na raised about ‘exemptions,’ the 4 highest finishers from the LIV Golf season — not in any other case exempt into the 4 main championships — ought to obtain invites to The Masters and the PGA Championship, the 2 occasions that function the strongest fields in golf traditionally. The U.S. Open and The Open are precisely that: open competitions the place a participant could make it by enjoying effectively in qualifiers.
Bear in mind, main champions obtain computerized invitations to every of the 4 majors for the following 5 seasons. Different exemptions exist, too, they usually differ relying on the foremost. Nevertheless, within the case of simplicity, we will use the five-year rule for example. For example, Phil Mickelson gained the PGA Championship in 2021, so he can nonetheless play in all 4 majors in 2025. If Mickelson completed among the many prime 4 within the closing standings, then the following highest finisher not in any other case exempt would obtain the nod.
Right here’s who would obtain this distinction this yr if this mechanism was utilized: Joaquin Niemann, Sergio Garcia, Tyrrell Hatton, and Louis Oosthuizen.
Rahm completed first within the rankings however will play in majors for years to return, because of his wins on the 2021 U.S. Open and the 2023 Masters. Niemann, Garcia, and Hatton completed second, third, and fourth, respectively, thus gaining entry into all 4 majors. Of these three, solely Garcia has gained a serious, doing so on the 2017 Masters. Koepka completed fifth however has gained 5 majors in his profession, so he won’t be skipping out on any of them quickly. After which Oosthuizen, who gained the 2010 Open at St. Andrews, completed sixth in order that he would earn the fourth and closing spot.
What do you make of this concept? Is it a ample compromise to Na’s proclamation? Or ought to LIV gamers obtain the good thing about the doubt? We’d love to listen to your ideas within the feedback under.
Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By way of. Comply with him on X @jack_milko.
