LIV Golfers Under Pressure as Single Event Becomes Decisive Cutoff for 2026 Open Championship

No matter the contention that LIV faces from The PGA Tour and its allies, its influence continues to grow especially at the world’s biggest tournaments. Deprived of participating in regular PGA Tour events, LIV players could heave a sigh of relief through entries in the major tournaments, and now the road to one of the majors has shaped up to be more consequential. While many of the world’s top golfers have already secured exemptions to compete in the 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale next summer, a new LIV-specific pathway has injected fresh drama into the qualification race.

The R&A confirmed on Monday that the first player and anyone tied for that position in the 2026 LIV Golf Individual Season Standings, after the final round of LIV Louisiana, will receive a direct exemption into The Open. This decision is a shift from this year’s February approach, which provided the exemption to the top five non-exempt players in points. That exemption made Sergio Garcia qualify for the tournament, who was fifth in points, as well as the other four ahead of him.

Now, this decision can either be a good thing or a bad thing for LIV players. It all depends on how you look at it. Earlier, with a top-5 players’ exemption, a higher number of players could slide into The Open. But now, that exemption will only be awarded to the number 1 player in the standings. In hindsight, it also offers more players the avenue to be a part of Royal Birkdale. You see, only one player doesn’t need to occupy the top spot. If there is more than one player tied for that first place, they too, will be able to qualify. Earlier, with the top-5 point approach, if more than five players were tied for top positions, not all would qualify due to the capped number.

If one considers LIV’s past events, tied for first place is a regular occurrence. At the LIV Golf Indianapolis event, Jon Rahm and Sebastian Muñoz finished tied for first place at 22-under par. Moreover, this can also be a game-changer for LIV players in other ways.

While past champions such as Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Rahm, Cameron Smith, Louis Oosthuizen, and Henrik Stenson are already exempt, the new pathway incentivizes consistent performance across the season. Players who have not previously won majors or don’t hold a high world ranking now have a concrete target. They will be required to perform at the highest level in Louisiana on June 28th next year, and the door to one of golf’s most historic stages will swing open for them.

Before this, the only other major tournament that officially considered LIV scores for qualification was the US Open. Earlier this year, the USGA reserved spots for top LIV players (who are not otherwise exempt) based on their standings in LIV ranks.

“Step in the right direction” – Patrick Reed on the USGA’s decision

One can’t just ignore the implications non-LIV players will face due to this. Players competing for Open Qualifying series spot — including the Australian Open, South African Open, and the LINK Hong Kong Open — now face a slightly narrow pool of available positions. Now that LIV players have been guaranteed berths, these traditional aspirants will be required to deliver strong performances to earn a spot in the 156-player field. All of this comes at a time when the merger between LIV and the PGA Tour seems stalled, despite moments here and there.

Anyway, these additional exemptions come at the top of many other exemptions provided to players so that they can be a part of the tournament. These include having won the event in the last ten years, or the Masters, the US Open, and THE PLAYERS champions between 2022-2025, among many others. Such avenues proved to be beneficial for the LIV players as they had no other option to scathe through. Barred from playing regular events, they can’t even show OWGR points as LIV’s points are not added to it. As a result, many LIV players have spoken in favor of such an exemption.

Patrick Reed, after the USGA’s decision earlier this year, said, “It’s definitely a step in the right direction. It’s a huge step and positive news.” Even Brooks Koepka shared his approval of the same, saying, “I think the organisations around the world, the R&A, the USGA, they’re looking at LIV Golf as part of the golf ecosystem now.”

But now with one additional exemption awarded to them, there are chances that LIV players will face a wrath of scrutiny from non-LIV players, as the latter have not been quite welcoming to the breakaway league squad. Rory McIlroy had said he would rather retire than play with these people. Similarly, Lucas Glover recently said, “I don’t want to play with them…I don’t want somebody that chose another path and a path of least or less resistance.”

What reactions these players have now after this new exemption remains to be seen. But before that, let us have a look at how LIV players have performed in the past in The Open Championship. Do they bring any value to the event or not?

LIV player’s fortune at The Open

Since joining LIV Golf, players’ performances at The Open Championship have been mixed. At this year’s event, Bryson DeChambeau had a remarkable comeback performance after a rough opening round. He shot 65-68-64 over the final three rounds to finish 9-under and tied for 10th/ This was his best LIV-era performance at The Open. Tyrrell Hatton, too, made some noise with a T16 finish. Dustin Johnson was able to make his first major cut of the year in this event and climbed to T23. Jon Rahm, Sergio Garcia, and Lee Westwood each finished 3-under in a tie for 34th.

Then there were some mid results as well. Phil Mickelson (T56), Henrik Stenson(T45), and Marc Leishman (T52) finished near the middle of the pack. While other high-profile names like Joaquin Niemann, Louis Oosthuizen, Brooks Koepka, Cameron Smith, and Patrick Reed missed the cut.

Now that R&A has given another exemption to these LIV players, they would want to climb higher on the leaderboard to justify their qualification to other non-LIV players.