Aussie Lucas Herbert is amongst seven LIV gamers to earn particular invitations to subsequent week’s PGA Championship, the second main of the 12 months, in what might be a thawing of ongoing tensions within the fractured {golfing} panorama.
Herbert, who joined the all-Australian Ripper GC this season and has tasted workforce success on the previous two LIV occasions, shall be one in all six Australians within the discipline at Valhalla.
He’ll be part of 2015 PGA winner Jason Day, Min Woo Lee, Cam Davis, Adam Scott and his LIV workforce captain Cam Smith, who wants a podium end at the least to get the rankings factors enhance he must preserve his Olympic hopes alive.
Invites into majors, which have strict qualification guidelines, for LIV gamers have been a bone of competition however officers at Augusta Nationwide handed two-time LIV winner Joaquin Niemann a begin on the Masters this 12 months, due primarily to his Australian Open win in Sydney final December.
Now PGA officers have invited Herbert together with fellow LIV stars Patrick Reed, Niemann, Dean Burmester, Adrian Meronk and David Puig to the event, a quantity that has stunned a lot.
An invite was additionally supplied to 2010 British Open winner Louis Oosthuizen, who declined as a result of a previous dedication, emphasising, maybe, the shock of the invitation.
Regardless of his claims the Masters winners for the previous two years ought to have an “asterisk” subsequent to their names with out all LIV gamers being eligible, and having refused to attend US Open qualifying, Talor Gooch, a four-time LIV winner, additionally earnt a PGA invite as officers try to assemble the most effective discipline doable amid golf’s divided panorama.
There shall be 16 LIV gamers within the PGA discipline, together with defending champion Brooks Koepka, who hits the occasion in type after profitable the latest LIV event in Singapore.
“I imply, profitable all the time helps, however I nonetheless have the identical expectations each time I am going tee it up and that’s to win. These are my expectations, what I wish to do,” he stated after that win.
“One consequence doesn’t imply something actually within the scheme of issues. For 2 weeks, so much can change. Yeah, it does assist, however on the similar time, I’ve seen guys miss cuts after which go win after which not compete the week after.
“It’s all ebbs and flows.”
