Fred Ridley – Masters not adding special pathways for LIV Golf
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Augusta National Golf Club chairman Fred Ridley said Wednesday that the Masters will continue to invite international golfers to the Masters with special invitations, but the tournament doesn’t otherwise plan to add special pathways for LIV Golf League players like two other major championships have done this year.
Ridley, speaking to reporters at a news conference, said he will continue to encourage the PGA Tour and LIV Golf League to come to some sort of agreement to reunify the sport so that the world’s best golfers would play together outside of the four major championships.
The PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which has funded LIV Golf since its inception in 2022, have been trying to reach a deal for much of the past two years.
Last week, sources confirmed to ESPN that the PGA Tour has rejected the PIF’s most recent offer to invest $1.5 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises, the tour’s for-profit entity, which came with the caveat that the rival LIV Golf League would remain intact.
The PIF also wants its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, to serve as co-chairman of PGA Tour Enterprises’ board.
“I’m not really in a position to say what form that should take as far as how the two organizations should come together, what legal structure that may be or what the financial aspects of that may be,” Ridley said. “But I think we all agree that four times a year is not enough to have the great players of the game together.”
There are 12 LIV Golf League players in the field, including past champions Phil Mickelson, Jon Rahm, Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed, Dustin Johnson, Charl Schwartzel and Bubba Watson.
LIV Golf’s Joaquín Niemann received a special invitation into the field after performing well in DP World Tour events last year and winning the Asian Tour’s PIF Saudi International on Dec. 7.
In February, the R&A and USGA added a qualification pathway for LIV Golf competitors to play in the Open Championship and U.S. Open, respectively. The leading LIV Golf player not already exempt from the top five in the individual season standings on June 30 will earn a spot in the 153rd Open Championship at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland on July 17-20.
The USGA announced a new exemption category for the U.S. Open that will award one spot to the leading LIV golfer from the top three in the individual standings at the halfway point of the season.
“As it relates to the USGA and the R&A, they certainly act independently,” Ridley said. “We respect their decisions. We are an invitational tournament. We have historically considered special cases for invitations for international players, which is how Joaquin Niemann was invited, or why he was invited, the last couple years.
“We feel we can deal with that issue, whether it’s a LIV player or a player on some other tour that might not otherwise be eligible for an invitation, that we can handle that with a special invitation.”
Ridley also touched on a few other issues related to golf during his news conference:
• Ridley defended Augusta National Golf Club’s decision to invite 2009 Masters champion Ángel Cabrera back to the tournament this year.
Cabrera, from Argentina, was sentenced in July 2021 to two years in prison for threats and harassment of Cecilia Torres Mana, his partner between 2016 and 2018. In November 2022, he was also on trial for threats and harassment against Micaela Escudero, another of his ex-girlfriends. After Cabrera pleaded guilty, the court made the two sentences concurrent and sentenced him to three years and 10 months in prison.
He was released on parole in August 2023
“Well, we certainly abhor domestic violence of any type,” Ridley said. “As it relates to Angel, Angel has served the sentence that was prescribed by the Argentine courts, and he is the past champion, and so he was invited.”
• Augusta National Golf Club had 200 to 250 employees working for weeks to clean up debris and restore the course after Hurricane Helene, a Category 1 storm, caused millions of dollars in damage in the area on Sept. 27, 2024. Augusta National Golf Club reportedly lost more than 1,000 trees and had to rebuild the No. 16 green.
The club was also instrumental in providing food, water, and other necessities to Augusta residents who were affected.
“The spirit of our entire Augusta National family throughout the challenges of the months that followed Helene will be a signature of the 89th Masters Tournament,” Ridley said. “For weeks, water, power, food, fuel and other basic necessities were either difficult or impossible to access. Nevertheless, our employees were out in the community distributing food, cleaning up debris and donating food and money to help others in their time of need.
“I thank each and every one of them, and to everyone in Augusta who made sacrifices to assist others, even when you were impacted yourself, we are deeply appreciative, and we will continue to do our best to support you and our community.”
• Ridley said the tournament is keeping a close eye on pace of play, which reached a boiling point on the PGA Tour this year. The PGA Tour said it will test allowing players and caddies to use rangefinders in order to acquire shot distances quicker, starting at next week’s RBC Heritage at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
The tour is considering publicizing pace-of-play data for players using “average stroke time” and disclosing fines and penalties for players who violate slow-play rules.
“Golf is a special game because it requires us to be considerate while also being competitive,” Ridley said. “Respecting other people’s time, including, importantly, the fans who support the game, is a fundamental courtesy. Therefore, I want to encourage continued dialogue on this topic, especially at the professional levels which serve as the most visible representation of our sport.”
Even some competitors at Sunday’s Drive, Chip & Putt youth competition at Augusta National used the AimPoint green-reading technique before putting.
“I think it’s safe to assume that next year at the Drive, Chip and Putt you will see some sort of time limitations placed on the competition,” Ridley said.
Source: espn.com