LIV Golf will stage its Qualifying Event for the 2024 season next week, and plenty of familiar names will be in the field.
PGA Tour veterans, major champion to play LIV Golf qualifier: “Tour doesn’t care about you”
The LIV Golf Qualifying event, set for next week in Abu Dhabi, will feature dozens of PGA Tour professionals.
Jack Milko has been playing golf since he was five years old. He has yet to record a hole-in-one, but he did secure an M.A. in Sports Journalism from St. Bonaventure University.
Chris Stroud, a former PGA Tour victor, is one of them. He feels obligated to see what LIV has to offer because of his current disdain for the PGA Tour.
“I’ve been frustrated with what the tour has done for years,” Stroud told Rex Hoggard of the Golf Channel.
“The Tour doesn’t care about you if you’re not in the top 30, and I learned quickly that I needed to take care of myself. The Tour has built this bad culture. I love [commissioner Jay Monahan], but the Tour has never tried to give back to the players; we’ve never had a voice. So, Jay has had a free hand to do whatever he wants.”
Stroud’s lone PGA Tour victory came at the 2017 Barracuda Championship, and his best finish in a major came at the 2017 PGA Championship, where he tied for ninth. Stroud has earned $13,360,657 in career winnings since becoming a professional in 2007.
With that said, plenty of other notable names will play in the LIV Golf qualifier, too. Whether they share the same frustrations that Stroud has is unknown.
The winner of the 2013 PGA Championship, Jason Dufner, will also tee it up in Abu Dhabi next week. Funny enough, that major was held at Oak Hill in Rochester, New York, where Brooks Koepka became the first active LIV golfer to win a major this past spring. Should Dufner qualify for LIV, Oak Hill’s two most recent champions would then tee it up on the Saudi-backed circuit next year.
Since Dufner has won a major before, he automatically qualifies for the second round. Only 14 players earned an exemption into this round, which includes Chase Koepka and Kevin Chappell.
Other notable players trying to qualify for LIV Golf’s 2024 season include Lucas Bjerregaard of Denmark, who took down Tiger Woods at the 2019 Dell Technologies WGC Match Play. PGA Tour veterans Jeff Overton, Kyle Stanley, and Alvaro Quiros of Spain are also in the field.
Frenchman Victor Dubbisson, who represented Europe at the 2014 Ryder Cup, will also play.
Zach Bauchou, who Viktor Hovland caddied for in a U.S. Open qualifier this past spring, is also among the entrants.
LIV Golf’s inaugural qualifying event begins Dec. 8 and will conclude with 36 holes on Dec. 10.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.
