Several of LIV Golf’s top players are teeing in Macau this weekend, not for the prize money but for a golden ticket.
Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia, Adrian Meronk and Carlos Ortiz are among the 17 LIV Golfers playing in the Asian Tour’s International Series Macau Event for a chance to play their way into the Open Championship at Royal Portrush. The Macau event is part of the R&A Qualifying Series, giving out spots in the 153rd Open to the top three finishers not already exempt for the Open Championship.
“This is an important week,” Garcia said in a pre-tournament press conference. “It’s a great tournament, it’s a very good field, and also with those three spots up for grabs for The Open Championship, it’s important. It’s my favorite major, so I would love to be back in it with not playing the last couple of years. So, I’m going to give it my best shot this week.
“Obviously we all love to play in the majors and be a part of them and give ourselves a shot at it. So to have the opportunity of qualifying here with these three top spots it’s huge and it just shows the growth of the Asian Tour and how important it is with the quality of players that we have here. So it should be a great week.”
Added Reed: “I feel like any time you have an opportunity to qualify for a major, it just gives you extra motivation to go out and have a little bit more drive to go out and try to make those putts and play your best game. Because at the end of the day, they’re the four events that we’re trying to always play.”
After Saturday’s third round, Reed and Ortiz are tied at the top at 16 under. Jason Kokrak is tied for third at 13 under, while Garcia is six back of Reed and three back of third place.
Last year, Reed played in the Masters and PGA Championship before missing the U.S. Open and Open Championship. Garcia played in the Masters and U.S. Open. He had played in 22 straight Opens before missing the 2023 and 2024 iterations.
In February, the R&A unveiled an exemption that it will give to the top player in the LIV Golf individual rankings who has not already qualified following the LIV Dallas event in late June.
Currently, Garcia is third in the LIV Golf individual rankings after his win at LIV Hong Kong. The two players ahead of him — Joaquin Niemann and Jon Rahm — have already qualified for the Open at Royal Portrush, so he is currently in a good spot to secure an exemption as the major season dawns.
However, Garcia needs to play a lot more good golf to earn the exemption, with Sebastian Munoz, David Puig, and others close behind in the standings and several events left before the R&A’s cut-off date.
A good Sunday round and a third-place finish in Macau can change all of that for Garcia.
With Reed and Ortiz in pole position to land two of the three exemptions, Garcia needs to track down and pass Kokrak, Dominic Foos, and Lucas Herbert to punch his ticket back to his favorite major.
