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Gamers who’ve joined LIV Golf is not going to be barred from competing in subsequent yr’s Masters, event organisers have introduced.
The PGA Tour has suspended members who’ve competed within the Saudi-funded breakaway with out permission, whereas the DP World Tour fined gamers £100,000 and banned them from the Genesis Scottish Open, however noticed that quickly stayed on attraction.
The R&A chief government Martin Slumbers stated in July that banning LIV gamers from subsequent yr’s Open was “not on the agenda”, however didn’t rule out altering the championship’s entry standards.
Masters chairman Fred Ridley took an analogous stance on Tuesday, saying in a press release that the entry standards for 2023 would stay the identical, with any doable future modifications introduced in April.
Former Masters champions Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia and Bubba Watson are among the many high gamers to have joined LIV, whereas others who stay contained in the world’s high 50 – regardless of LIV not presently being allowed to award rating factors – will nonetheless be eligible to compete at Augusta Nationwide.
Ridley’s assertion learn: “From its inception in 1934, the aim of the Masters Event has been to learn the sport of golf. Every April, the Masters assembles the world’s main golfers to compete for the Inexperienced Jacket and a spot in historical past.
“It offers a stage for followers to expertise dramatic moments of competitors on the highest degree and promotes the game domestically and overseas. By the years, legends of the sport have competed and received at Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership.
“Champions like Gene Sarazen, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Gary Participant, Tom Watson, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods have change into heroes to golfers of all ages.
“They’ve impressed some to comply with of their footsteps and so many others to play and benefit from the recreation. They’ve supported the game and, thus, all who profit from it. They’ve proven respect for many who got here earlier than them and blazed a path for future generations. Golf is healthier due to them.
“Regrettably, latest actions have divided males’s skilled golf by diminishing the virtues of the sport and the significant legacies of those that constructed it. Though we’re disenchanted in these developments, our focus is to honour the custom of bringing collectively a preeminent area of golfers this coming April.
“Subsequently, as invites are despatched this week, we are going to invite these eligible beneath our present standards to compete within the 2023 Masters Event. As now we have stated up to now, we have a look at each side of the Event every year, and any modifications or modifications to invitation standards for future Tournaments can be introduced in April.
“We have now reached a seminal level within the historical past of our sport. At Augusta Nationwide, now we have religion that golf, which has overcome many challenges via the years, will endure once more.”
In the meantime, a gaggle representing victims’ households and survivors of the 9/11 terrorist assaults has known as on the Masters to rethink its choice to not ban LIV Golf gamers.
9/11 Households United, which has beforehand written to brokers of a number of American LIV gamers to specific their outrage at them competing within the Saudi-funded occasions, has pledged to protest at Augusta Nationwide if the coverage is just not reversed.
“Within the aftermath of 9/11, our nation agreed we might ‘By no means Neglect’ that horrible day. The one cause the Saudis launched LIV was to attempt to make the world overlook who they’re and what they did, together with their function in 9/11,” learn a press release. “Anybody who really vowed to ‘always remember’ must be appalled by the choice by these golfers to place cash forward of their very own nation.
“On behalf of 9/11 Households United, we’re calling on Augusta Nationwide to rethink their open-door coverage to the LIV golfers. If they’re welcomed with open arms, we can be at their entrance door to protest in April.”
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