Augusta National Golf Club announced Tuesday, that any golfer who qualifies for the Masters tournament on the basis of its previous criteria will receive an invitation to play in 2023. This includes 16 players currently playing in the LIV Golf League.
Six Masters champions from the past are part of the group who defected to LIV Golf from the PGA Tour. Bubba Watson, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed Charl Schwartzel.
Regrettably the recent actions have divided mans professional golf through diminishing the virtues the game and the meaningful legacys of those who created it, Augusta National Golf Club chairman Fred Ridley stated. We are disappointed by these developments but our focus is on honoring the tradition of bringing together an elite field of golfers in April.
We will therefore invite all those who meet our current criteria to participate in the 2023 Masters Tournament as soon as we send out invitations. We look at all aspects of the Tournament every year. Any modifications or changes to the invitation criteria for future Tournaments are announced in April. This is a historic moment in the history and evolution of golf. Augusta National believes that golf, which has faced many challenges over the years, will continue to thrive.
The Masters, the first major championship in the season, will be played in Augusta (Georgia) from April 6-9.
Australias Cameron SmithThe No. 3 player in the world,. The No. 3 ranked player in the world qualifies to win the 2022 Open Championship as well as the Players. Bryson DeChambeau Brooks KoepkaThey were invited because of their wins at the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship in five years. Joaquin Niemann Talor GoochThey are in the field after qualifying to the season-ending Tour Championship.
Abraham Ancer, Harold Varner III, Jason Kokrak, Kevin Na Louis OosthuizenYou were also invited if you are in the top 50 of OWGR. Any other player who was in the top 50 during the week before the 2023 event would be invited.
Whether Augusta National would change their criteria to make it harder for LIV golfers in the Masters has been a major question in the long-running battle between LIV Golf, the PGA Tour and the PGA Tour.
LIV Golf is being helmed by two-time Open Championship winner Greg NormanThe tour, which was funded by Saudi Arabias Public Investment Fund has attracted many of the most well-known players to the sport with guaranteed signing bonuses that are reportedly worth up to $200 million.
Mickelson and DeChambeau were among nine LIV golfers who filed a federal antitrust suit against the PGA Tour. They claimed that the tour was conspiring to prohibit LIV players from participating in the sports most important championships. In the lawsuit, Ridley was accused by LIV golfers lawyers of working behind-the scenes for the PGA Tour.
The complaint claimed Augusta National representatives threatened to disinvite Masters players from LIV Golf if they joined. It claimed Ridley personally instructed” players at this years tournament to not defect to LIV golf and that Norman refused to meet him to discuss the new circuits business model.
Mickelson was a three-time Masters champion and didnt play in this year’s tournament. His comments about the PGA Tour’s obnoxious glutt and the history of human right violations by the Saudi Arabian royal family were heavily criticized. Ridley at the Masters said Mickelson was not disinvited.