This week’s LIV Dallas event comes with one major subplot.
(Literally.)
There’s one final spot available in the year’s final men’s major, the Open Championship (July 17-20), that’s been reserved for a LIV player. Earlier this year the R&A — the governing body that owns and operates the Open — announced that it would hold an exempt spot for the top player in LIV’s individual standings that wasn’t otherwise qualified for the event, provided it was one of LIV’s top five players.
The top three in LIV’s current standings — Joaquin Niemann, Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm — already are in thanks to other exemptions. That means there’s one spot left and a wide-open race to claim it.
Sergio Garcia is currently LIV’s No. 4 man, which means if all things stay equal he’d be the one with a Portrush tee time. That would mark a particularly meaningful return for the Spaniard, who played every Open from 1998 through 2022 before missing the last two editions. When he came up just short in U.S. Open qualifying last month, it marked the end of his run of 25 consecutive U.S. Opens, too. Interestingly, when the Open’s Final Qualifying information was released, Garcia’s name was left off, which means he’s putting all his eggs in this LIV exemption basket.
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Garcia was already tantalizingly close to qualifying for the Open at the Asian Tour’s International Series Macau, which held three spots for the Open. But Garcia missed a three-footer for birdie on his final hole, ceding his spot to fellow LIV pro Jason Kokrak instead.
In Dallas, anybody within 40 points of Garcia could technically swipe his spot, if they should win and he earns no points. But his two closest competitors are No. 5 Lucas Herbert (6.1 points behind) and Sebastian Munoz (8.6 points behind). There’s also the outside possibility that two already-exempt players slide into the 4 and 5 slots (say, Carlos Ortiz and Marc Leishman, currently 6 and 7) and no additional exemption would be awarded.
Garcia was red-hot to begin the season, winning LIV’s Hong Kong event, finishing fourth at the International Series Macau and third at LIV Miami and stirring up Ryder Cup chatter in the process. But it’s been a struggle since then; he missed the cut at the Masters, finished T67 at the PGA Championship, missed the U.S. Open altogether and his best LIV finish since April is T38.
The exemption itself represents a sign of changing times and a sign of cooperation in a fractured golfing landscape. While LIV still does not award World Ranking points, this year was the first time any majors laid out a formal pathway for qualification via performance in LIV events. The U.S. Open gave out a similar exemption, which Niemann locked up with his third LIV victory of the season (he now has four).
While many of LIV’s players have slipped in the OWGR, the top LIV pros not already qualified include Munoz (No. 62 in DataGolf’s ranking), David Puig (No. 65), Herbert (No. 66), Garcia (No. 85) and Dean Burmester (No. 92).
The Open’s Final Qualifying will take place on July 1, with Ex-Ryder Cuppers, PGA Tour pros and plenty of other current LIV pros set to ship out from Dallas to the U.K. post-round Sunday in time for 36 holes on Monday. Read more about those notables here.
You can see the top 20 in LIV’s standings below — or the complete list here.
LIV Golf Individual Standings
Players with * are already qualified.
1. Niemann 165.5*
2. DeChambeau 120.6*
3. Rahm 116.7*
4. Garcia 78.0
5. Herbert 71.9
6. Munoz 69.4
7. Ortiz 66.0*
8. Leishman 64.9*
9. Burmester 60.3
10. Puig 60.1
11. Mickelson 55.7*
12. Schwartzel 50.2
13. Lahiri 46.6
14. Koepka 45.1*
15. Meronk 44.7
16. Pieters 43.9
17. Gooch 43.2
18. Reed 41.1*
19. Ancer 40.9
20. Smith 37.8*
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