LIV Golf’s Kevin Na desires to ensure all LIV winners safe a spot within the 4 main championships, just like how PGA Tour winners robotically obtain invitations to Augusta Nationwide every year.
Na defined his reasoning in a latest interview with Golf Month-to-month.
“Winners ought to be exempt, and I feel you are taking the highest 16 gamers or so. I feel in case you have a season and also you end inside the highest 16, you have to be exempt into all 4 Majors,” Na mentioned.
“Plenty 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 case you win a golf event on the [PGA] Tour, you then get in. I feel it ought to be simply the identical for LIV.
“Should you win a LIV occasion, there are solely 13, then you have to be in all of the Majors as a result of that’s not simple to do. Plus, you’re going to have a number of winners, so that you’ll solely get 10 guys who win a event in a 12 months. And you understand Jon Rahm goes to win one!”
It’s a must 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 shouldn’t obtain direct entry to all 4 main championships.
For starters, LIV occasions function solely 54 gamers every week, a a lot smaller discipline measurement than some other skilled golf event 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 instances.
If that’s not sufficient, the group ingredient LIV additionally components in, as some gamers have mentioned that their technique modified when the group competitors was shut. That was a serious purpose why the Official World Golf Rating (OWGR) didn’t award LIV Golf occasions OWGR factors within the first place: the group play ingredient threatened the integrity of the person competitors.
Now, critics will say, ‘However LIV Golf has so many main champions!’
Little question 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 might make a run at profitable a serious championship? Possibly 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 stage regardless of their affiliation with the Saudi-backed circuit. Koepka and DeChambeau have confirmed that emphatically, profitable 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 might win a serious? Certain, a participant like Talor Gooch could make a run however his main report isn’t nice. The most effective 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 in the mean time, with these eight gamers rating in a class of their very own. Others are both one, nicely 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.
Nonetheless, the lads’s recreation on the highest stage stays in peril. The game is split, with main winners competing on each the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, taking part in collectively solely 4 instances per 12 months, if that. So what’s the answer?
Properly, 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 taking part in nicely in qualifiers.
Keep in mind, main champions obtain computerized invitations to every of the 4 majors for the next 5 seasons. Different exemptions exist, too, they usually fluctuate relying on the main. Nonetheless, within the case of simplicity, we will use the five-year rule for example. As an illustration, 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 remaining standings, then the subsequent highest finisher not in any other case exempt would obtain the nod.
Right here’s who would obtain this distinction this 12 months 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, due to 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 remaining spot.
What do you make of this concept? Is it a ample compromise to Na’s proclamation? Or ought to LIV gamers obtain the advantage of the doubt? We’d love to listen to your ideas within the feedback beneath.
Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By means of. Observe him on X @jack_milko.
