With two weeks to go before the Masters, the members of the LIV Golf League who will be eligible to play at Augusta National is all but set.
Augusta National announced late last year that its current qualifications for an invitation would remain in force, regardless of what professional tour to which a player belonged.
Since LIV players haven’t been able to gain entry into the Masters through categories such as winning on the PGA Tour (since last June), being among the top-30 on the 2022 FedEx Cup points list or rising into the top-50 on the World Golf Ranking, they have to rely on status as past major champions (lifetime for the Masters, within the past five years for the U.S. Open, PGA and British Open) or last year’s world rankings.
Augusta will invite anyone among the current top-50 in the world after this week but the closest LIV player to No. 50 who is not in the Masters is Dean Burmester at No. 74, followed by Cameron Tringale at No. 87.
The latter is what rankles LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman. The World Golf Ranking board has yet to rule on whether LIV golf events will receive points, so the only events they have been able to get points are the major championship, the DP World Tour (under a court injunction) and some Asian tour events.
There is only one more week to get into the top 50 in the world to reach the Masters. Winning on the PGA Tour will get a player to Augusta through next week’s Valero Texas Open.
The PGA Tour is in Austin, Texas, this week for the Dell Technologies Match Play and in the Dominican Republic, and the DP World Tour is playing in South Africa.
Here are the LIV players who will be in the Masters and their eligibility category:
Past Masters champions
- Phil Mickelson (2004, 2006, 2010)
- Charl Schwartzel (2011)
- Bubba Watson (2012, 2014)
- Sergio Garcia (2017)
- Patrick Reed (2018)
- Dustin Johnson (2020)
U.S. Open champions, 2018-2022
- Brooks Koepka (2018)
- Bryson DeChambeau (2020)
British Open champions, 2018-2022
- Cameron Smith (2022)
Top four, 2022 PGA Championship
- Mito Peirera
Top 50, final 2022 World Golf Rankings
- Joaquin Niemann (22)
- Abraham Ancer (30)
- Thomas Pieters (37)
- Talor Gooch (40)
- Harold Varner III (45)
- Jason Kokrak (47)
- Kevin Na (49)
- Louis Oosthuizen (50)