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Louis Oosthuizen, winner of the 2010 PGA Championship, now performs for LIV Golf.
Lionel Ng/Getty Photographs
The 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla, the second males’s main of the yr, is simply days away. Whereas most mavens have spent weeks, if not months, attempting to earn a spot within the area, one former main winner and present LIV professional obtained an invitation however determined to not play, in response to a brand new report.
On Tuesday, the PGA officers introduced the preliminary area for subsequent week’s main, that includes 154 gamers in what can be a 156-player area. Included on that listing had been six pros who now ply their trades with LIV Golf and who weren’t in any other case certified.
6 LIV players receive last-minute major invites, leaving 1 surprise omission
Three of them — Adrian Meronk, Patrick Reed and Lucas Herbert — are ranked within the High 100 within the Official World Golf Rating. Three others — David Puig, Dean Burmester and Talor Gooch — proved their worth with their play on the Asian Tour, DP World Tour and on LIV.
However there was one obtrusive absence from the LIV invitees listing: Louis Oosthuizen.
Not solely is Oosthuizen a significant champion, because of his blowout victory on the 2010 Open at St. Andrews, he’s additionally had quite a few near-misses on golf’s largest phases. Oosthuizen misplaced the 2012 Masters to Bubba Watson in a playoff. He completed runner-up on the 2015 U.S. Open and T2 on the 2021 U.S. Open. As for the PGA, he additionally has two runner-up finishes there, incomes T2s in 2017 and 2021.
The truth that his title was lacking from the sphere was even stranger given the truth that he gained two DP World Tour occasions in December.
However now, because of the AP’s Doug Ferguson, we might have some perception into why Oosthuizen gained’t be at Valhalla alongside together with his fellow LIV compatriots.
Tuesday afternoon, Ferguson tweeted, “Seems PGA supplied Oosthuizen an invite. He turned it down due to private commitments. Unsure what these had been.”
If that report is true, it means PGA Championship officers did deem Oosthuizen price of taking part of their occasion, they usually did need him within the area. Oosthuizen, nonetheless, declined the invite for private causes.
Because of his DP World Tour wins, Oosthuizen in now ranked No. 125 within the Official World Golf Rating. He had moved all the way in which as much as No. 107 after a runner-up on the Worldwide Sequence Oman occasion in February, however that wasn’t sufficient to make the Masters area final month, for which he didn’t obtain an invitation, or for an computerized invite into the PGA.
