PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Patrick Reed has not missed a major since he first became eligible for them at the 2014 Masters, a streak that now is in peril with the PGA Championship two months away.
The PGA of America sent out its first batch of invitations, and Reed was not on the list. Joaquin Niemann received an invitation, having won the Australian Open and posting two other top-five finishes in European tour-sanctioned events, along with a LIV Golf League victory.
How much that LIV Golf Mayakoba win mattered is unknown. The Masters also offered Niemann a special invitation and cited only his European tour performances.
Kerry Haigh, the managing director of championship for the PGA of America, said another batch of invitations will go out after the Players Championship. The full list will be announced in the weeks leading to the May 16-19 championship at Valhalla.
None of the majors have a category for leading players from LIV Golf, and there’s no indication that will change. The PGA of America has the largest list of invitations, which for years has included the top 100 (and a little beyond) in the world ranking. It just doesn’t list the top 100 as a category.
“We certainly do use that list, as well as other lists from various tours around the world,” Haigh said. “It’s nothing new or different than what we’ve done in the past and hopefully we’ll plan to do so again.”
The PGA Championship also relies heavily on a PGA Tour money list that starts after the PGA Championship. Haigh was asked if there would ever be a LIV Golf points list.
“It’s the same answer,” he said. “We look at all the lists. We don’t necessarily put a number on it. If players are deserving, hopefully we would invite them.”
Reed has plunged to No. 109 in the world — LIV Golf doesn’t get world ranking points, and the Saudi Arabia-funded league last week withdrew its application for them.
It’s not from a lack of effort. Reed played twice on the Asian Tour last week (a tie for seventh and a tie for 15th), and he is playing this week in Macau. The Masters presumably would be his last chance to make an impression. He has yet to win in the LIV Golf League .
The majority of LIV Golf players in the majors are recent major champions.
The R&A did not make exceptions for LIV Golf when it announced its criteria last week, other than to add five spots from the International Federation Ranking — the leading four won money titles on the Japan, Asian, South African and Australasian tours, and the fifth player from those tours is based on the world ranking.
Andy Ogletree with LIV Golf is the top Asian tour player.
One concession the R&A is likely to make comes from final qualifying on four links courses two weeks before the July 18-21 Open at Royal Troon. They currently have 16 spots — four from each site. The goal is to boost that to 20 spots.
That might explain why the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which last year awarded three spots to the British Open to players not already exempt, offered only one this year. The Memorial also has only one spot available. But the fields in those signature events are so strong that most players already are exempt.
Reed is not exempt for the British Open, either. He got into the U.S. Open last year because his world ranking was still among the top 60. That’s no longer the case, depending on how he plays in the Masters.