PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — The last time Royal Portrush hosted the British Open, David Duval spent so much time on the 7th hole that he celebrated two birthdays. Duval posted a 14 on No. 7 and a 91 for the first round. Duval returned to the Open in 2022 and shot an opening 82 at St. Andrews. He finished ahead of one player, Mark Calcavecchia—who, like Duval, was in the field only because he was a former champion. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club loves the royal and ancient.
Duval is not playing this week. But he could have: Any past champion through 2023 is exempt through the age of 60. The R&A did lower the exemption age to 55 this year, but that only applies to champions from 2024 onward.
So 53-year-old Justin Leonard will tee it up this week, a mere 17 years after he last won a PGA Tour event. Darren Clarke has not played a regular PGA Tour event since 2016, but he is in the field here at age 56.
Yet Talor Gooch is not here, because his four LIV Golf individual wins have earned him zero Official World Golf Ranking points, and the R&A reserves one exemption for LIV. One! There are eight exemptions for amateurs and one for players on the second-best professional circuit in the world.
This year, LIV’s lone exemption went to Sergo Garcia, who thanked the R&A by immediately complaining about his lie. But to give a few more LIV players an easy way in, the R&A awarded spots to the top three finishers in an International Series event in Macau, which just happened to be the week after a LIV event in Singapore. Patrick Reed went to Macau and managed to finish second without suing anybody, thus qualifying him for the Open.
Reed’s LIV colleagues Jason Kokrak and Carlos Ortiz also earned spots in Macau, though, as with most things LIV, “earned” is probably not the right word. The competition in Macau was so weak that the top non-LIV finishers in that event are now ranked 168, 405, 571 and 619 in the world.
Handing spots in the British to the top three finishers in Macau was just a way to gift-wrap them for LIV. Basically, LIV Golfers knocked on the R&A’s door, and the R&A screamed dramatically at them for trespassing while slipping them a key to the back entrance. What was the backup plan if Macau didn’t work out? You can play in our tournament, guys, but first, you must eat three pieces of meat without asking what they are.
Look, I am not a fan of LIV Golf. I think you could travel to Macau and back without flying over a fan of LIV Golf. It was always a soulless money grab for players who are delusional about their own honest market value, and while it’s been good for the investment portfolios of elite golfers, it’s been bad for the game itself. The PGA Tour still hasn’t figured out a way to deal with this problem, which has only compounded it, but the Tour did not create the problem.
It is also, objectively speaking, hilarious that the R&A made the most entitled golfers play a nondescript event in China just because it could, though if Reed’s lawyers ask, I’m not laughing. I don’t feel bad for LIV golfers (or for Reed’s lawyers.) But this is pretty silly. Justin Leonard earned his spot in the 2025 British Open in 1997, but what LIV golfers did against Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau last month doesn’t count. It does not really make any competitive sense.
Obviously, the R&A is taking a moral, principled stand, and for that, we should commend the organization’s new chief executive, Mark Darbon.
“I met a couple of months ago with Eric Trump,” Darbon said.
Ah, OK. You might recall that after the 2021 insurrection attempt at the United States Capitol, the R&A said it would not host any events at Turnberry, a classic Open rota course that is owned by Donald Trump. Darbon has softened his tone considerably (but then, so did American voters.) It’s not clear now if Darbon is bluffing—and if he is, whom he is bluffing. Is he stringing the Trumps along with no intention of going back to Turnberry? Or has he given Turnberry a list of tournament requirements that allow him to pretend this was never about politics at all?
Darbon is a calculating fellow. He knows what he is doing, he knows you want to know, and he will not tell you until he is good and ready. Ultimately, the Turnberry question and the LIV question have the same answer: People who hold power in golf are primarily concerned with keeping it.
I don’t think the R&A will return to Turnberry any time soon because, whatever his political views, Darbon does not want to hand the British Open narrative to the Trumps. Once you sign that deal, you hand the U.S. president a microphone with no off switch.
The R&A, PGA Tour, PGA of America, USGA, Augusta National and various other tours that control the golf ranking do not want to award points to LIV because strengthening LIV weakens them. It’s about power, not principle. You might believe they are doing the right thing. But if you believe they are doing it for competitive integrity, there is a bridge in Macau I’d like to sell you.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Golf's Power Grab Extends Beyond LIV Golf.