Yasir Al-Rumayyan initiates discussions with R&A regarding 2024 The Open exemptions for LIV Golfers

LIV Golf is said to be in talks with the R&A to allow for exemptions for LIV golfers for the 2024 Open Championship. After a long struggle, the LIV Series lost its long-fought battle with the Official World Golf Rankings board to secure ranking points for its golfers.

This makes the likelihood of LIV players qualifying for major championships all the less, since World Ranking points is the most common eligibility criteria for qualification. Ever since the OWGR bid was rejected, there have been several alternatives that have been suggested to allow LIV players to participate in majors.

One of the suggested solutions was given by Bryson DeChambeau, which was to allow the top 12 LIV finishers to participate in all majors.

Now that LIV is in a tough spot, it has well in advance opened up a conversation with the CEO of R&A, Martin Slumbers, for the 2023 Open Championship.

LIV Golf's interim COO, Gary Davidson, spoke about the effects of the OWGR rejection.

He said via Golf Monthly:

“The accuracy of the rankings now is having a knock-on effect to the Majors, which is as much a shame for them as it is for our players. We’ve spoken in the past about direct exemptions for LIV players through our end-of-season rankings into the Majors making sense. And maybe the top 12 would make sense."

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R&A CEO Martin Slumbers plays golf with Yasir Al-Rumayyan to discuss future of LIV Golf and the Open

It was reported that in early October, Martin Slumbers played a round of golf at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship with Al-Rumayyan.

The discussions carried out suggested that instead of 12 players, there is a more realistic chance of 4 players making the exemption for the Major.

Davidson explained that the conversation with R&A went much beyond just participation at majors but was an agenda to push for global participation.

He said:

“I think the conversation for us with the R&A would be much broader than that. We are investing significant resources into our sustainability programmes, as are the R&A. We are going around the world with events looking to inspire people to put a club in their hands and be involved in the sport."

The R&A is expected to finalise its qualification criteria for the 2024 Open in the New Year.