The PGA of America officially announced the field list for the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla on Tuesday. LIV golfer Talor Gooch couldn’t keep a secret, though.
Gooch took to social media to announce he received a special invitation on Monday, stating, “Looking forward to Valhalla next week! Thank you for the invitation PGA. See y’all there.”
Turns out, Gooch was far from the only LIV player to receive a special invite. Not counting those already exempt, six LIV golfers received special invitations, Gooch included. The most notable among them is Patrick Reed, a former Masters champion who has yet to win on the LIV Golf Tour despite playing on the Saudi-backed league since its second-ever event in 2022. On the strength of some solid performances on the DP World Tour and in the major championships, however, Reed remains inside the top 100 of the Official World Golf Ranking.
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Also receiving invites were Australia’s Lucas Herbert, Dean Burmester, Adrian Meronk and David Puig. Two of those players – Herbert and Meronk – are also inside the top 100 of the OWGR. Burmester is ranked 130th, but the South African won two DP World Tour events in late 2023 and picked up his first LIV victory at LIV Miami the week before the Masters. Both Herbert and Puig have finished inside the top 10 in four consecutive OWGR-sanctioned events.
The most glaring LIV omission is Louis Oosthuizen, who has not yet won on LIV but, like the four names mentioned above, has showed signs of very good golf in OWGR-sanctioned events as recently as February. That month, the former Open champ finished solo second at the International Series Oman, which was won by fellow LIV player Carlos Ortiz, who is also not in the PGA Championship field.
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Joaquin Niemann, who finished third in that event, is also in the PGA Championship field (he received his special invitation back in March).
Other notable LIV golfers who will not be in the field at Valhalla include Sergio Garcia, Mito Pereira and Abraham Ancer, among others.
UPDATE: According to Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press, Oosthuizen was offered an invitation to play in the PGA Championship at Valhalla next week but turned it down due to personal commitments:
