Rumours On LIV Open Exemptions 'Completely Off The Mark'

Speaking at the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship (AAC) at Royal Melbourne Golf Club, Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive of The R&A, said that recent media rumours about automatic Open exemption places for LIV golfers are “off the mark.” He confirmed that there was no announcement on changes to qualification criteria for The Open Championship at this stage and there would not be any announcement on qualification criteria until early in 2024.

“We are in the process of reviewing our exemptions and conditions of entry for The Open Championship for next year, as we always do.  We will publish those in early 2024,” he said.

“As I've stated a number of times, our conditions are designed in a way to create pathways for the very best players in the world to compete for The Open Championship next year at Royal Troon.”

There has been speculation in the media recently that LIV players are to be offered the chance of automatic exemptions to The Open Championship at Royal Troon and Mr Slumbers has not discounted that possibility, but he confirmed there was no basis to the rumours at this time. He said The R&A would never talk about changes to qualification criteria prior to an official announcement.

“I would say, though, there has been some speculation in the media recently on the topic and I would say that it is completely off the mark,” he said.

“I would like to make it very clear that exemptions for The Open - we do not discuss them with anyone, and nor would we at any point in time.”

Also speaking in the press conference at the AAC, Fred Ridley (Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club) said there were no plans to change the invitation policy for The Masters Tournament at this time but he also said that those invitation criteria are always looked at.

“If you look back over the history of the Masters Tournament and the qualifications that existed, we have changed those qualifications numerous times, dozens of times. We look at those every year. We don't make changes every year but we do look at them under the current circumstances,” he said. “And so while we do not at this time anticipate making any changes in 2024, you know, we do always look at them and we will continue to do that.”

Mr Ridley was clear that any decisions they make are always in the best interests of The Masters Tournament.

With regards The Open Championship, Mr Slumbers made it very clear that The Open already offers pathways for any player to compete.

“There are plenty of opportunities for any player in the world who thinks they are good enough to have a chance to qualify and play in The Open Championship irrespective of which tour they are participating on, and that will not change,” he said.