LIV Golf's Louis Oosthuizen Secures Last-Gasp Masters Invite

The South African will end the year at 50th in the world, meaning an Augusta National invite will surely be on its way

Louis Oosthuizen hits an iron shot
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Elliott Heath
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published

Louis Oosthuizen dropped out of the world's top 50 for the first time since 2014 earlier in the month but he'll finish the year just inside to likely earn a Masters invite.

The South African, winner of the 2010 Open at St Andrews, headed home for the Alfred Dunhill Championship on the DP World Tour where a T7th finish was enough to move him back just inside the top 50.

Twitter Official World Golf Ranking guru 'Nosferatu' @VC606 described Oosthuizen's T7 finish as "crucial", with the LIV player set to finish outside of the world's top 50, instead of Daniel Berger, had he not had that result.

Oosthuizen's invitation to The Masters isn't guaranteed as it's officially an 'Invitational' tournament but invites historically go out to all of the world's top 50 players at the end of the prior year.

With the nine-time DP World Tour member being a LIV Golf player there may be some suspicions as to whether players from the Greg Norman-fronted league will be allowed to play, although there has been no indications of that at this time. Invites are set to be sent out in the coming weeks.

Oosthuizen will likely tee it up at Augusta National for the 15th consecutive year, where he'd be joined by past champions from LIV including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Bubba Watson, Charl Schwartzel and Sergio Garcia.

Plenty of other LIV Golfers are qualified for upcoming Majors including Cameron Smith, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Joaquin Niemann and others. Other LIV players in the top 50, and likely heading for Augusta, include Kevin Na, Jason Kokrak, Harold Varner III and Talor Gooch.

Oosthuizen finished runner-up in the 2012 Masters, where he famously lost to Bubba Watson's incredible hooked wedge on the 10th hole in a playoff. The South African has finished runner-up in all four of the men's Majors.

His last victory on tour came at the 2018 South African Open.

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Elliott Heath
Elliott Heath
News Editor

Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He manages the Golf Monthly news team as well as our large Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. He covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews. His first Open was in 2017 at Royal Birkdale, when he walked inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth during the Texan's memorable Claret Jug triumph. He has played 35 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Western Gailes, Old Head and Turnberry. He has been obsessed with the sport since the age of 8 and currently plays off of a six handicap. His golfing highlights are making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, shooting an under-par round, playing in the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour and making his one and only hole-in-one at the age of 15 - a long time ago now!

Elliott is currently playing:

Driver: Titleist TSR4

3 wood: Titleist TSi2

Hybrids: Titleist 816 H1

Irons: Mizuno MP5 5-PW

Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58

Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5

Ball: Srixon Z Star XV

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