SAN DIEGO (AP) — The road to Oakmont might have started in Riyadh, yet another reminder of the fractured landscape in golf.
Along with Adrian Meronk winning $4 million for his first LIV Golf title in Saudi Arabia's capital last week, he took the first step toward a spot in the U.S. Open at Oakmont. His wire-to-wire win came three days after the USGA announced a direct path for LIV players to the U.S. Open.
“Very important, yeah,” Meronk said about the new category for the USGA, the first organization to publish such criteria. "That's going to be on my goal list, for sure. I'm going to focus on that, just to keep going, keep playing good golf. And hopefully, I can get a spot.”
There's still a long way to go — six more LIV events in six countries, to be exact — and while the USGA put out a welcome mat, the door remains narrow. Only one spot is available to a LIV player provided he is among the top three in the standings.
The British Open followed suit five days later, with a slightly more generous offer. It will take the leading LIV player not already exempt provided he is among the top five in the standings, pushing the cutoff to the end of June after nine LIV events have been played.
Whether the specific LIV categories by the two oldest championships in golf is a sign of legitimizing the Saudi-funded league is up for debate.
Various LIV players have argued for more exemptions. Kevin Na went so far as to say the Masters should take anyone winning on LIV. The Opens are offering one spot at most, and the potential of no spots if the leading players on LIV already are exempt.
But it's a start, and it's in writing.
That's what sets apart the two Opens from the other two majors.
The PGA Championship, which boasts the strongest field of the majors, uses a “special invitations” category to get the top 100 in the world ranking and anyone else it feels worthy.
That includes LIV players, and the PGA has gone beyond the top 100 in offering spots. One of them last year went to Talor Gooch, who had won three times in LIV Golf the previous year. But there is no specific category for LIV.
The Masters doesn't have one, either, and that doesn't appear likely to change.
“I think it will be difficult to establish any type of point system that had any connection to the rest of the world because they're basically — not totally, but for the most part — a closed shop,” Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley said last year when asked about direct access for LIV.
The Masters gave Joaquin Niemann a special invitation last year, citing his play outside LIV Golf, including his Australian Open victory. Niemann received another invitation this year.
That special invitation is what Ridley cited when he explained how Augusta National considers who should be part of the smallest field among majors.
“If we felt that there were a player or players — whether they played on the LIV tour or any other tour — who were deserving of an invitation to the Masters, we would exercise that discretion with regard to special invitations,” he said.
Playing in the majors was a central question when LIV Golf launched in June 2022. It hasn't been an issue so far because at least a dozen LIV players have been in every major since then. Some were exempt from their performances in majors, others through qualifying.
How much longer will that last?
Patrick Reed's five-year exemption from winning the 2018 Masters has expired. He has missed out on the last two. Dustin Johnson is in his final year of exemptions for the PGA Championship and British Open.
Tyrrell Hatton has paid his fines and kept his European tour membership, and he is on a stellar run of six straight top 10s, including victories at the Dunhill Links last fall and the Dubai Desert Classic last month. He's at No. 8 in the world and will stay in the majors through performance outside LIV Golf. That's another route.
In the meantime, the PGA Tour is moving closer to a deal with Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, which pays for LIV.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, who played golf with President Donald Trump late last year, and Adam Scott met with the president at the White House last week. Tiger Woods was supposed to be there until returning to Florida when his mother died. Woods played golf with Trump on Sunday.
The deal is mainly about the Public Investment Fund becoming a minority investor in PGA Tour Enterprises. The tour has been keeping the Justice Department apprised of the negotiations since last summer. And now Trump is involved.
"We are grateful that his leadership has brought us closer to a final deal, paving the way for reunification of men’s professional golf,” Monahan said.
Most telling was the use of “reunification.” Most curious is how that gets solved, and whether two tours with top players can carry on the way they have the last three years.
But a partnership — first broached in June 2023 — would seem to be the first step toward eliminating the need to even keep track of which LIV players get into which majors.
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On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season. AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
