'If You Win A LIV Event, There Are Only 13, You Should Be In All The Majors'

IronHeads captain Kevin Na remains "pretty confident" that LIV golfers will be offered a route into all four Major championships "in the near future" and says that, if it was up to him, that pathway would involve any winner of a 54-hole tournament.

Currently, the LIV Golf League is unable to offer its players direct exemptions to any of the unifying events in men's golf. However, several stars of the PIF-backed circuit have featured in the quartet of high-profile tournaments as a result of either past achievements or, in a handful of cases, special invitations.

Yet, the likes of Joaquin Niemann and any of the other younger talents who do not have long-running exemptions on their side are aware that annual invites are far from guaranteed.

With discussions over a merger between the PGA Tour, LIV Golf League, and DP World Tour continuing without a resolution as of yet, the future of the Majors remains unclear - especially for those in the 54-hole competition.

Heading into the 2025 campaign, the IronHeads' leader insists he has not heard any concrete information about when - or even if - that might change, but believes it is only a matter of time until all four Majors feature the top LIV players once more.

Speaking to Golf Monthly, Na said: "I haven’t heard exactly what’s going to happen, but I’m pretty confident that - in the near future - we will get exemptions to Majors.

"It just has to happen because there are too many good players playing out here. I know the Major champions are exempt, but - eventually - guys will run out of exemptions.

"The Majors want the best players to play. Obviously, the Majors are successful either way, but they want the best competition. And in order to do that, you have to invite the best players in the world. You saw Joaquin [Niemann] get a bunch of invites last year - that was just the beginning.

"I think, eventually, we will have a criteria from our League with a pathway straight to the Major championships, I’m not too concerned about that."

Given the absence of any solid information on the subject, players, fans and stakeholders alike are currently free to visualize how they would set out a meritocratic system for LIV golfers who strive to reach the Majors.

From Na's point of view, the Korean-American player - who hasn't featured in one of the big four since withdrawing from The Masters in 2023 - says LIV's model should closely reflect the one used by the PGA Tour but go one step further.

As it stands, winners of any PGA Tour event receives an invite into the subsequent Masters and PGA Championship. However, entry into either the Open Championship or US Open is based on a golfer's Official World Golf Ranking or ability to progress through qualifying.

While exemption through the OWGR is extremely difficult given LIV's inability to offer ranking points, the 41-year-old argued that any winner of a 54-hole tournament should book their spot at all four Majors.

Explaining how a LIV golfer's path to the Majors would look if he held the power, Na said: "I think you do winners, so if you win a LIV Golf tournament. We only have 13, so to win a golf tournament with this field, it’s pretty difficult to do.

"Winners should be exempt, and I think you take the top-16 players or so. I think if you have a season and you finish inside the top-16, you should be exempt into all four Majors.

"A lot of guys who are Major champions and are exempt, they’re going to overlap, so top-10 isn’t enough. I don’t even think top-15 is enough, 16 is a good number.

"I know The Masters does it so that if you win a golf tournament on the [PGA] Tour, then you get in. I think it should be just the same for LIV.

"If you win a LIV event, there are only 13, then you should be in all the Majors because that’s not easy to do.

"Plus, you’re going to have multiple winners, so you’ll only get 10 guys who win a tournament in a year. And you know Jon Rahm is going to win one!"