Players who have signed up to the controversial LIV Golf circuit will be allowed to play at the 2023 Masters, Augusta officials have confirmed.
Phil Mickelson. Photo: ANDY LYONS
LIV players, which include previous Masters champions Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, have been suspended indefinitely from the PGA Tour.
But Masters chairman Fred Ridley says the event is designed to bring together "a pre-eminent field of golfers".
The emergence of LIV Golf, a Saudi-backed breakaway tour offering huge sums of money to players, has caused deep divisions in the sport.
Ridley announced Wednesday that any golfer who has qualified for the Masters tournament based on its previous criteria will be invited to play in the 2023 event in April.
Previous Masters champions Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia of Spain, and Charl Schwartzel of South Africa are included in that group.
Cameron Smith of Australia will receive an invitation after winning the 2022 Open Championship, while Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka are allowed to head to Augusta by virtue of winning the U.S. Open in the past five years.
Joaquin Niemann of Chile has qualified for the event by virtue of being in the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings prior to leaving the PGA Tour in September.
Talor Gooch, Harold Varner III, Jason Kokrak, Kevin Na and Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa reside in the top 50 in the current Official World Golf Ranking.
"Regrettably, recent actions have divided men's professional golf by diminishing the virtues of the game and the meaningful legacies of those who built it," Ridley said in a statement.
"Although we are disappointed in these developments, our focus is to honor the tradition of bringing together a preeminent field of golfers this coming April.
"Therefore, as invitations are sent this week, we will invite those eligible under our current criteria to compete in the 2023 Masters Tournament. As we have said in the past, we look at every aspect of the Tournament each year, and any modifications or changes to invitation criteria for future Tournaments will be announced in April."
-Reuters