PGA of America chief issues direct message to LIV Golf
PGA of America chief executive Derek Sprague has told LIV Golf to submit a new application for world ranking points.
New PGA of America boss Derek Sprague has told the breakaway LIV Golf League to submit a new application for world ranking points.
Sprague made the comments ahead of the 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club in North Carolina.
Rumours circulated just after The Masters that LIV were involved in 'advanced talks' with the governing body to finally secure points.
But newly-appointed OWGR chairman Trevor Immelman poured cold water on the rumour.
Immelman did confirm, though, that he met with LIV's chief executive Scot O'Neil at Augusta National.
Sprague, who replaced Seth Waugh in the top position at the PGA of America, also confirmed he met with O'Neil in Georgia.
"I had heard and read about him from many of you folks in this room. So, I met with him for the first time at Augusta just to introduce myself.
"Certainly, he's still looking, it's been reported lately, in Official World Golf Rankings.
"I sit on that board. He's encouraged to submit an application for the board to review.
"Other than that, I have nothing else to report."
LIV Golf have 15 full-time players in the field this week.
Dustin Johnson, Joaquin Niemann, Sergio Garcia and Tom McKibbin were handed spots in the field.
The others qualified by virtue of their world ranking and previous performances.
Adrian Meronk is perhaps the highest-profile LIV player not in the field despite winning the breakaway's curtain-raiser in Riyadh.
The PGA of America's chief championship officer, Kerry Haigh, said: "Just as we have for many years, we look at every tour that's playing worldwide golf and try and identify the best players from those respective tours.
"When we do that, we certainly look at points list or money lists or rankings and identify who we think are the better players.
"The committee meets and talks about whether or not we should offer them invites, which is why I think through that process we were able to get worldwide players from various tours.
"We use the federation rankings, the top four from the federation rankings are playing this week, as well as LIV, as well as the other countries. It’s a worldwide field.
"That's why we feel it's the strongest field in golf because of that process where we look at all the different tours and try and include and invite those best players."
The PGA Championship gets underway on Thursday.
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