Why Can't LIV Golfers Compete in This Week's World Golf Championships-Dell Match Play?

The event is under the purview of the Federation of International PGA Tours and nine LIV players would have been eligible by their Official World Golf Ranking.

By now it is clear that if you participate in a LIV Golf event, you will be prohibited from playing on the PGA Tour.

That extends to qualifying events and the Korn Ferry Tour. PGA Tour members have been suspended or seen their memberships revoked; and even non-members who participate in LIV events are precluded from playing for at least a year.

But this week’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship raises an interesting question: Why are the LIV Golf players not eligible? This is a co-sanctioned event under the purview of the International Federation of PGA Tours, not just a PGA Tour event.

It is a question that really hasn’t come up for some time amid all the controversy surrounding the two tours.

DP World Tour players who joined LIV Golf or played in its events were permitted to play in last summer’s co-sanctioned Scottish Open due a ruling by an arbitration judge that effectively served as an injunction.

An arbitration panel took up the case last month in London and a decision has yet to be rendered. In the interim, LIV Golf players who are DP World Tour members are permitted to play in those events. Patrick Reed, for example, finished second to Rory McIlroy at the Dubai Desert Classic in February.

Reed is one of several LIV players who entered this week’s Dell Technologies Tournament at Austin Country Club and were denied.

Ranked 66th in the world, he would have been part of the 64-man field because two other eligible players—Justin Thomas and Justin Rose—did not enter.

In fact, there are nine LIV golfers who were ranked inside the top 66 at the time the world ranking eligibility closed after the Players Championship: Cam Smith, Joaquin Niemann, Abraham Ancer, Thomas Pieters, Talor Gooch, Harold Varner III, Mito Pereira, Dustin Johnson and Reed.

The Match Play is a 64-player tournament that goes strictly off the Official World Golf Ranking.

It was formed in 1999 under the Federation of PGA Tours along with other World Golf Championship events, two of which are no longer played and the third—HSBC Champions in China—which has not been contested since 2019. It is believed that the WGC concept will end with this week’s tournament.

The Federation of PGA Tours encompasses tours from around the world. And given that the DP World Tour is one of those co-sanctioning the event, it led to questions about eligibility.

The PGA Tour acknowledged that several LIV players had asked to enter but were denied because the tournament application for entry states that it is “subject to acceptance by the Host Tour and the International Federation of PGA Tours and may be rejected or revoked by either without liability at any time before or after commencement of Tournament play if a player fails to meet the eligibility requirements ... (or) violates any of the Tournament Regulations of the Host Tour."

The Tour, which faces antitrust litigation from LIV Golf and has countersued, maintains that golfers who participate in LIV Golf events have violated its conflicting-events rules which require releases for overseas tournaments; the Tour has never granted releases for domestic events.

Thus, LIV Golfers are deemed in violation of its rules which allows them to deny entry to a World Golf event.

“The PGA Tour has determined that any player who has participated in an event or series of events during the 2022-2023 PGA Tour season that the membership has been informed is not authorized by the PGA Tour is ineligible to compete in any event sanctioned by the PGA Tour for a period of one year from the final round of competition of the unauthorized tournament in which he participated," the Tour said in a statement.

Due to the two PGA Tour players who did not enter and the LIV Golfers who were not allowed to participate, the tournament field went to 77th in the world based on last week’s OWGR.

The event begins Wednesday with three days of pool play, the top player in each group advancing to Saturday’s 16-player knockout stage. Scottie Scheffler is the defending champion.