Will token exemptions satisfy LIV?
And will Masters follow suit of the two Opens? Stray Shots: Detry lays waste in Phoenix
Enough LIV podiums might now get you in some majors (Charles Laberge/LIV Golf)
The U.S. Open and British Open each created narrow exemption categories for the top LIV golfer not otherwise exempt to compete in the major championships. It’s a reasonable acknowledgment of the quality of players at the top end of the breakaway circuit.
Two questions remain:
Will the Masters follow suit for 2026 when club chairman Fred Ridley has his annual press conference on the eve of the year’s first major championship in April and announces any future qualification changes?
Is it enough to satisfy to the outsized ego of LIV Golf?
We all know the answer to that last one is probably no, but it’s as good as LIV is going to get until it puts aside its stubbornness and makes minor adjustments to satisfy the Official World Golf Ranking and resubmit its application for OWGR points.
As for the Masters question, it’s a definite maybe. The Masters might prefer to continue to exert its own discretion on the matter and utilize its special international invitation to cover its bases. Each of the last two years, Augusta National has invited LIV’s Joaquin Niemann — a nod to the Chilean’s willingness to compete and succeed outside of the confines of the LIV bubble. It doesn’t hurt that Niemann is a former Latin America Amateur champion — an event ANGC helped launch to grow the game around the world.
Niemann, for what it’s worth, is the top LIV finisher in individual points not otherwise qualified for majors in 2025, having finished runner-up to Jon Rahm.
If the Masters does decide to bequeath a LIV-specific qualification as the two Opens did, it likely would not be more than one spot for the highest ranked LIV player, not otherwise qualified, in the final season-ending individual points standings. That would be more than it guarantees any other tour outside of the PGA Tour, which despite LIV’s assertions is where the bulk of the best golfers in the world still play.
Augusta’s desired limited field size of comfortably under 100 players doesn’t have room to offer more than one guaranteed spot (if that) unless it chooses to cut out access somewhere else. The only potential places to prune would be the PGA Tour’s fall event winners or further reduce the number of top Masters finishers from the previous tournament from top 12 and ties to top 10 or fewer. Both would eliminate cherished elements that make earning a place in the Masters special.
There are currently 90 players qualified for the 2025 Masters.
On Monday, the R&A and its newest chief executive, Mark Darbon, announced its exemption categories for the 2025 Open at Royal Portrush, creating a new category exclusively for LIV. The top-ranked player not already exempt, but within the top five of LIV’s individual standings at the end of June, will be granted a spot in the Open at Portrush. This mimics the USGA’s decision last week to offer the top-ranked player on LIV not already exempt and in the top three spots as of May 19 a spot this summer at Oakmont.
“We acknowledge that players competing in LIV Golf should also have the opportunity to secure places in the Open through its individual season standings as well as existing pathways,” Darbon said.
Those existing pathways include 15 designated tournaments in 11 countries on five continents that provide spots to top finishers not otherwise exempt as well as 16 places reserved for Final Qualifying. Among the 15 events in the Open Qualifying series this year are the Asian Tour’s International Series Macau in March as well as next week’s New Zealand Open, both of which welcome and encourage LIV golfers to compete.
“The acknowledgement that competitors from the LIV Golf League and the International Series will have the opportunity to play in golf’s original major is a true testament to the strength of fields and the R&A’s commitment to golf fans around the world,” said LIV Golf’s new CEO Scott O’Neil in a statement.
Brooks Koepka, who has no major access issues as a five-time major winner including the 2023 PGA Championship, hopes the exemption updates are a “first step.”
“This is the first step of many I think we’re looking to take,” Koepka said Wednesday in Australia. “The opportunity is there. I think the organizations around the world, the R&A, the USGA, they’re looking at LIV Golf as part of the golf ecosystem now. With that is a huge, huge step forward for us.
“Hopefully we have a player that’s not exempt that’s up there ready to go and gets in another major because all it does is just add value to this league and to each team.”
Cam Smith, who remains exempt into all the majors via his win in the 150th Open at St. Andrews in 2022, welcomed the new exemptions for his LIV peers in an interview with The West Australian ahead of this week’s LIV Golf Adelaide event. But it was of course tinged with LIV entitlement grievance.
“I think it would have been nice to have that as soon as we moved over here but obviously things take time,” Smith said. “I think it definitely needed to happen. I feel like there are some guys out here who have missed out on spots in majors over that past couple years that deserved them so it’s good to see that they are acknowledging us.
“It’s hard to win out here and it’s hard to compete and I think we have the strongest fields in golf week in and week out. I think it will be the best thing for the game.”
That “strongest fields in golf” sentiment doesn’t hold much water to any reasonable observer, but it’s a narrative LIV golfers keep pushing. Earlier this year, Kevin Na and Niemann both expressed opinions that LIV should be getting 10 to 15 exemptions into majors, with guarantees for every LIV event winner or top 10 points finishers.
That’s never going to happen no matter how much LIV promotes that concept. The one (or two spots starting with the 2026 U.S. Open; one more than the USGA guarantees to both the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Champions) are the best LIV can hope for until it does what’s best for its players and compromises to gain admittance to the OWGR points system.
But O’Neil doesn’t seem included to change the course Greg Norman made when he withdrew LIV’s application for OWGR points last March.
“I think our time with the world rankings has passed,” O’Neil said after taking the helm. “On behalf of golf and fans around the world, you want to see the best players on the biggest stages. There are several paths to go down, and from conversations with the majors we are hoping the situation continues to evolve in our favor and we are very confident it will.”
Two of the most prominent majors have made their decisions and it can’t be everything that LIV hoped for.
Currently, 12 LIV Golf players have already secured spots for the Open at Royal Portrush (Bryson DeChambeau, Tyrrell Hatton, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Marc Leishman, Tom McKibbin, Phil Mickelson, Niemann, Louis Oosthuizen, Rahm, Smith and Henrik Stenson) and eight are guaranteed to be exempt for the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont (DeChambeau; Johnson, Koepka, Rahm, Mickelson, Cameron Smith, Hatton and Richard Bland).
Twelve LIV golfers are qualified for the Masters: past champions Sergio Garcia, Johnson, Mickelson, Rahm, Patrick Reed, Charl Schwartzel and Bubba Watson; recent major winners DeChambeau, Smith and Koepka; as well as Hatton (OWGR top 50) and Niemann (special international invitation).
Stray Shots: Detry lays waste to Phoenix
By Peter Kaufman
Is there a better Sunday if you love golf and football than the final round of the WM Phoenix Open followed by the Super Bowl? With the possible exception of the majors, really the answer is no.
Last Sunday started with a lot of promise for the finish in the WM. Because surely Thomas Detry would not maintain his five-shot 54-hole lead.
He didn’t — Detry increased it, putting his foot on the accelerator and zooming to a seven-shot win over Daniel Berger and Michael Kim. It seemed like Sunday might have given us a more competitive finish when some of our favorites made some mini-runs, but the 32-year-old Belgian was having none of it, as he won his first PGA Tour event in great style.
Big things have been expected of Detry for years. He was one of the top amateurs in the world and turned pro at 21, but he has played 10 majors with only one top-10 and a bunch of MCs. Maybe this gets him over a hump and we will be hearing more from him.
Some observations:
Is it possible to shoot 31 and head to the 10th tee in a sour mood in the final round? Yes, if you are Scottie Scheffler and you miss a putt on No. 9 for 30 that was almost inside the leather. Momentum visibly drained, and Scheffler sagged just when it looked like Detry and others were hearing his footsteps. Scheffler came home with an almost unimaginable 41 for a total of 72 and T25.
Very fun to see the golf bros, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, having a good time out there. Spieth netted a T4 and will anyone debate that golf cannot have enough moments with the former “Golden Child” in the hunt? Meanwhile JT finished in a hurry with a walk-off eagle 18 — something never done before on a Sunday at the WM. His hole-out from 104 yards tied Detry for low round of the day, each with a couple of sporty 6-under 65s.
Maverick McNealy made some noise, but could only muster a 69 on Sunday for T9 when it had looked early as if he could be in the mix. He essentially stood still while others passed him by. Still a nice showing for him.
Tom Kim continues to disappoint a bit, notwithstanding all his talent. He was lurking in the top-10 most of the tournament, but a 2-over 73 Sunday dropped him to T44. Sadly for those who like this young man, he is committing misdemeanors and felonies out there of late; slow play a week ago was the former, while essentially flipping off the crazies on 16 certainly counts as the latter.
Sepp Straka shot 5-under 66 on Sunday to finish 15th, which makes three tournaments in a row where he has distinguished himself. An impressive run.
Crowd favorite Min Woo Lee and Cam Young each shot 67 on Sunday for T12. They were just four behind the B-flight “winners” — to be precise, the winners of the tournament exclusive of Detry.
Finally, keeping a weekly eye on the ratings, the 2025 WM had 2.9 million TV eyeballs. That’s an improvement of 500,000 viewers from last year when Nick Taylor won it. But in 2023 (Scheffler won) it had 3.7 million viewers, in 2022 (also Scheffler) 3.6 million viewers and in 2021 (Brooks Koepka winning in rare minor) 3.7 million. Just as the flight of the golf ball does not lie, neither do the ratings. The trend is rather unappealing.