PGA of America boss blasts 'mischaracterisation' over LIV Golf

Seth Waugh says there has been a healthy back and forth with LIV Golf execs. 

Ben Smith's picture
Wed, 17 May 2023
PGA of America boss blasts 'mischaracterisation' over LIV Golf

PGA of America boss Seth Waugh says exchanges between the Official World Golf Ranking and LIV Golf have not been 'acrimonious' on the eve of the second major of 2023. 

Waugh hit the headlines a few weeks ago when he spoke to The Times about the breakaway tour's bid for world ranking points. 

The topic has been discussed at length and we are sure by now you will no doubt be a tad exhausted with the topic, just like Rory McIlroy

Waugh stated there has been 'a healthy back and forth' with LIV executives but the ball, from his understanding, is still in their court. 

It is understood that one of the stumbling blocks is the fact the Saudi-backed league does not meet the average field size of 75. 

"What I've said and what I'll say now is there has been healthy back and forth. It has not been acrimonious. There's been collegial back and forth of them making an application as other tours have done. We've responded; they've responded. The ball, from my understanding, is in their court from our last response at this point." Seth Waugh

Related: LIV players at the PGA Championship, ranked

A number of LIV Golf players are in the field for this year's PGA Championship at Oak Hill. 

There were 18 players set to compete but that has now been reduced to 16 after Martin Kaymer and Paul Casey withdrew. 

Casey was forced out on 16 May and later stated he felt 'awful' about skipping the major. 

Waugh had previously explained the PGA of America had extended a special invite to Casey after injury also prevented him from competing at Southern Hills 12 months ago.

Going forward, Waugh said he doesn't envisage any changes to qualification criteria. 

He said:

"Yeah, the criteria for the PGA Championship has been pretty much the same for 30 years. We added the Olympic winner. This year we added the federation rankings, the top three players from that. I don't envision any change to the categories that are currently there. We also have the opportunity to invite other players who are not in those exempt categories, which for 30 years we have done, as far back as Ernie Els when he was first playing. I remember inviting him as a very young professional.
"So far we've been delighted. The golf course conditioning has been probably better in May than August, dealing with the stress, the heat, and although it becomes sort of a tight window right before the third week in May, we are delighted with what we've seen at all of those venues."

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