Which LIV Golfers Are Exempt Into The 2024 Majors?

LIV Golf was dealt a blow shortly before the end of its 2023 season when its bid for world ranking points was rejected. 

That leaves many of its players facing an uphill battle to compete in future Majors because securing the points to climb the rankings is the most common way to earn spots to the four showpiece events.

However, while big names including former World No.1 Lee Westwood, 2008 Open runner-up Ian Poulter and 2023 LIV Golf individual champion Talor Gooch will need to weigh up what other options are available for qualifying, the situation is not nearly as precarious for others, thanks to their earlier achievements in Majors.

In total, 12 LIV golfers know they have at least limited eligibility for next year’s Majors. Here are the players who will be teeing it in at least one of them in 2024.

Bryson DeChambeau

• The Masters
• PGA Championship
• US Open
• The Open

DeChambeau, who helped his Crushers GC team to victory at the LIV Golf Team Championship, only has one Major win – the 2020 US Open. However, that means we’ll see him tee it up in the tournament for at least the next seven editions as US Open champions are exempt for 10 years. 

Winning the tournament also guaranteed his place in the other three Majors for the following five years, meaning his spots at The Masters, the PGA Championship and The Open won’t be in doubt until at least 2026.

Dustin Johnson

• The Masters
• PGA Championship
• US Open
• The Open

Johnson’s 2016 US Open win gives him a guaranteed spot at the tournament for a few more years, while his 2020 Masters title means he need never again worry about how to secure a spot at the Augusta National tournament, with winners guaranteed a lifetime exemption.

Thanks to that, he’s also secure in the other three Majors for the next two years, but he’ll need to win another within that timeframe to guarantee his place at them beyond 2025.

Brooks Koepka

• The Masters
• PGA Championship
• US Open
• The Open

When Koepka won the first of his three PGA Championship titles in 2018, it guaranteed his exemption into the tournament for life. Later that year, he secured his second US Open title, which meant he was also eligible for that tournament until 2028.

Before this year, the most recent of his Major wins had been in the 2019 PGA Championship. Given that a Major win guarantees exemptions into the other three for the next five years, he knew even before the 2023 tournaments that he was secure in each until the end of next year.

Another win in the PGA Championship at Oak Hill means that’s now the case until 2028.

Phil Mickelson

• The Masters
• PGA Championship
• US Open
• The Open

Thanks to three Masters wins and two in the PGA Championship, Lefty doesn’t need to worry about how to qualify for them ever again, while the 53-year-old’s 2013 Open win means he’s guaranteed a spot in it for the next seven years, when he turns 60.

Mickelson's eligibility for future editions of the US Open – the one title he needs to secure a career Grand Slam – is the most precarious. However, thanks to his most recent PGA Championship win in 2021, he’s guaranteed his place for the next three. That will extend to 10 if he finally finds a way to win the event he’s finished runner-up in six times.

Cameron Smith

• The Masters
• PGA Championship
• US Open
• The Open

Shortly before moving to LIV Golf, Smith stormed to victory at the 150th Open at St Andrews. With winners of that Major exempt until they’re 60, it means the Australian can play in it until 2053 regardless of what happens elsewhere in his career.

Despite spending over a year with LIV Golf since that win, Smith is still riding high in the world rankings, but even if that changes in the coming months, his Open win ensures he’s also safe in the other three Majors for the next four years.

Sergio Garcia

• The Masters

Garcia’s 2017 win in The Masters means there’ll always be a spot waiting for him at Augusta National, but runner-up finishes at the PGA Championship and The Open are starting to look costly now.

Because the Spaniard failed to win those tournaments, he didn't play in them in 2023, and that could easily be the case again next year. Garcia did book his spot in the US Open via Final Qualifying this year – an option he will likely need to pursue again to extend a 24-year run at the tournament.

Martin Kaymer

• PGA Championship
• US Open

Kaymer’s 2010 PGA Championship win means he’ll always have a place at the Major, but his spot at the US Open, which he also won in 2014, is starting to look uncertain. 

Next year marks the last of his automatic exemption to the tournament thanks to that victory. Without winning it or finding another way to qualify, it could be his last appearance in it for a while.

Louis Oosthuizen

• The Open

Oosthuizen claimed his only Major victory to date at the 2010 Open, and, now aged 41, he’ll be able to play in it for the next 19 years. 

However, with exemptions to the other three Majors courtesy of that win having long since expired, there are no guarantees we’ll see him in them in 2024. 

Considering how many close calls the South African has had in the other three Majors, with runners-up at least once in each, he is likely rueing not getting over the line at them now.

Patrick Reed

• The Masters

Reed missed out on a lifetime ticket to the PGA Championship with a runner-up finish in 2017, but he secured one to The Masters a year later. 

However, with exemptions into the other three having elapsed, he’ll have to pursue other means of qualifying if we’re to see him anywhere other than Augusta National in 2024.

Charl Schwartzel

• The Masters

Schwartzel finds himself in a similar position to Reed – namely, secure at The Masters for as long as he chooses to play in it thanks to his 2011 win, but scratching his head for ways to compete in the remaining three without a high enough world ranking. 

The South African competed in neither the PGA Championship nor the US Open in 2023 but found a way into The Open via Final Qualifying. It could be a similar story if Schwartzel wants to compete in Majors beyond The Masters next year.

Henrik Stenson

• The Open

Stenson’s win at the 2016 Open means we’ll see the 47-year-old at the tournament for the next 13 years, including in 2024 at the venue where he won the title, Royal Troon. 

However, there are no such guarantees in the other three Majors. That was the case in 2023, too, when the Swede only appeared in The Open at Royal Liverpool.

Bubba Watson

• The Masters

Watson guaranteed his lifetime exemption to The Masters with the first of his two Augusta National titles 11 years ago. 

Still, without world ranking points or another win at the tournament, it could be a while until he competes in the other three again. In 2023, he only competed in The Masters, too, and to make matters worse, he missed the cut, ensuring only two rounds of Major action in the year for the American.