Report: 10-time main champ turns into newest member of Augusta Nationwide

LIV Golf not too long ago acquired unhealthy information that they might not be receiving OWGR factors within the foreseeable future, making entry to the 4 main championships for therefore a lot of their professionals almost unimaginable.

Nevertheless, based on James Corrigan of The Telegraph, LIV Golf is in discussions with the R&A to make sure LIV gamers will likely be granted spots within the Open Championship.

Final week, the OWGR denied the applying from LIV to obtain world rating factors for his or her tournaments, leaving the pathway for LIV golfers to get in main championships in critical doubt.

Eventually month’s Alfred Dunhill Hyperlinks, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who governs the PIF, was paired with Martin Slumbers, who’s the chief government of the R&A.

The Andrew Waterman pseudonym is hilarious, however except for that, it looks like Yasir Al-Rumayyan taking part in alongside Martin Slumbers this week could also be of significance.

— Matt Vincenzi (@MattVincenziPGA) October 5, 2023

Clearly, the pairing was no coincidence, and discussions might have begun or continued at St. Andrews.

With solely 5 LIV golfers exempt into all 4 majors subsequent yr, there may be clearly a way of urgency for LIV officers to discover a strategy to get their stars into golf’s greatest occasions.

After LIV was denied OWGR factors, COO Gary Davidson opined that the top-12 golfers on LIV ought to get an exemption into main championships to make sure one of the best fields doable.

“The accuracy of the rankings now could be having a knock-on impact to the majors, which is as a lot a disgrace for them as it’s for our gamers. We’ve spoken prior to now about direct exemptions for LIV gamers by way of our end-of-season rankings into the majors making sense. And possibly the highest 12 would make sense.”

“It’s one thing that may be helpful for us, however I believe is also one thing that’s in all probability required for the majors to verify they maintain their energy when the OWGR can’t try this.” The tie-up with the R&A particularly, wouldn’t cease there, nonetheless.

“I believe the dialog for us with the R&A could be a lot broader than that,” Davidson mentioned. “We’re investing vital assets into our sustainability applications, as are the R&A. We’re going world wide with occasions trying to encourage individuals to place a membership of their arms and be concerned within the sport.

“After all, the R&A are additionally concerned in world growth. So, there’s loads of totally different initiatives we are able to work with them on. Exemptions into the Open could be one in every of them.”

Whereas it’s early to inform how the scenario will unfold, it appears as if LIV could possibly be on monitor to get gamers not at present exempt in at the least one of many majors in 2024.

Extra from the nineteenth Gap