One of the biggest concerns at the Masters, the first major tournament this year, which opens on the 7th (Korean time), is the confrontation between PGA tour players and LIV golf players. Players active in LIV Golf have been banned from participating in the PGA Tour, but Augusta National GC, which hosts the Masters tournament, has left the door open, saying, “Anyone can participate in the Masters as long as they meet the qualifications.” As a result, 18 LIV golf players, including Phil Mickelson (53, USA) and Dustin Johnson (39, USA), participated, and this Masters became a game where representative players from both camps competed head-to-head.
Augusta National, which seemed to be neutral in the confrontation between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, took a clear course toward the PGA Tour. It is by opening the door more to players who have the right to participate in the PGA Tour next year’s Masters qualification.
Fred Ridley, president of Augusta National GC and head of the Masters Organizing Committee, held a press conference on the 6th, the day before the opening of the tournament, and said, “To the players who participated in the Tour Championship, the final round of the PGA Tour season, and to the winners of the PGA Tour event allocated full points, the Masters I will give you the right to participate,” he said. Both conditions must be premised on the fact that ‘a player who basically has the qualifications to participate in the PGA Tour’. It means that there will be more seats for PGA Tour players instead of LIV golf players who are not eligible to play on the PGA Tour.
Regarding this, foreign media outlets such as ESPN of the United States analyzed, “It will be difficult to find cases like Taylor Gooch, a LIV golf player who participated in the Masters this year.” As of the end of last year, Guchi was ranked 48th in the world rankings, and was able to participate in this year’s Masters, surpassing the 50th place standard with a pull-up. However, he was not able to participate in last year’s Tour Championship due to the PGA Tour’s ban on participation.
Chairman Ridley made his critical stance on LIV Golf clearer in the Q&A. “I know a lot of players who are no longer on the PGA Tour. I still consider them friends,” he said, “they built their careers on a foundation built on the blood, sweat, and tears of previous generations such as Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods. It was really disappointing to leave this place,” he said. He went on to criticize, “Leaving to another place after achieving success in that place is a decision that does not consider the next generation.”
He also reaffirmed his will to determine qualifications for the Masters based on world rankings. He emphasized, “The long-term, objective world ranking based on data is a really good criterion for determining the first player.” The LIV golf tournament, which has a total of 54 holes, does not receive world ranking points. Because of this, the world rankings of LIV golf players are rapidly dropping. Currently, Cameron Smith (30, Australia) is the only LIV golf player among the world’s top 10 players. He moved to the LIV goal right after winning the Open in July and was once ranked second in the world, but now has fallen to sixth. Bryson Dishambeau (30, USA) and Brooks Koepka (33, USA), who were in the top 20 in the world rankings a year ago, are all pushed out of the top 100. In the end, if you want to qualify for the Masters while playing at LIV Golf, you have no choice but to win the Masters like Mickelson and Johnson or raise your world ranking through the Asian Tour.
Augusta National GC’s leaning towards the PGA Tour has already been detected. Augusta National GC invited PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and DP World Tour (formerly European Tour) representative Keith Pelli to this tournament. However, Greg Norman, the head of LIV Golf, did not invite. Norman criticized, “I won a major tournament (1986, 1993 British Open), but I wasn’t invited to the Masters. It’s really petty.” 카지노
In response, Chairman Ridley admitted that “we did not send an invitation to Norman.” “I want to focus on the Masters itself,” he said. “The world’s best players participating in the Masters should be illuminated.”
Still, in this tournament, the PGA Tour and LIV Golf have not yet created a special conflict. On the 5th, Rory McIlroy, a hardline PGA Tour fine, played a practice round with Koepka, one of LIV Golf’s representative players, creating an appeasement mood. The Champions Dinner, which drew attention from hardliners who have represented the PGA Tour, such as Woods and Fred Couples, and players who moved to LIV Golf, such as Johnson, Mickelson, and Bubba Watson (45, USA), gathered together and finished in a friendly atmosphere.