SUGAR GROVE, Ill. – Having concluded their fifth LIV Golf Invitational Series event on Sunday, LIV golfers now have two weeks prior to their next tournament destinations, which will for the first time see them play in back-to-back weeks in Thailand in Saudi Arabia.
But that doesn’t mean all of them will be inactive.
Several LIV players, including Patrick Reed, Talor Gooch and Louis Oosthuizen, are entered in upcoming events on the DP World Tour in Europe.
Patrick Reed will travel from Chicago to Paris for the French Open on the DP World Tour.
Jamie Sabau/USA Today
One of them who isn’t is Martin Kaymer, the two-time major champion from Germany who decided to skip last week’s BMW PGA Championship—where 15 other LIV players competed—due to all the animosity and anxiety surrounding the participation of LIV golfers.
Kaymer, 37, who has 23 worldwide wins including 11 on what is now called the DP World Tour, said he used the time to practice at a home he has in Jupiter, Florida, and will do so again leading up to the events in Bangkok and Jeddah.
“This is such a good energy, such a good place to play golf at the moment,” Kaymer said at Rich Harvest Farms, where the LIV Golf Invitational Series Chicago event was played. “Until things settle down, I think it’s smart, I think it’s the right thing for me as a person to stay away from all the negativity. I truly feel like we were really not that welcome. So I don’t know why I should go there.
Scroll to Continue
“I know I have the right to go there due to my playing status, but I decided to let the tour be for now. Maybe one guy got in because I didn’t go. I’m happy for him. I just wanted to stay away from the negativity and this is such a good place and good energy at the moment.”
There’s no doubt been a lack of that for LIV golfers when they’ve ventured outside the friendly confines of their new golf path.
Players such as Rory McIlroy, Billy Horschel and tournament winner Shane Lowry made it clear they didn’t feel those who defected to LIV Golf should have been competing in the DP World Tour’s flagship tournament—or any DP World Tour event.
Although the PGA Tour has suspended and banned LIV players from competing in its events, DP World Tour members are allowed to compete pending a court decision due in February.
So Reed—who said he is having difficulty getting to Paris due to flight issues in England surrounding the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on Monday—is scheduled to compete in this week’s French Open at Le Golf National, site of the 2018 US Ryder Cup defeat, along with other LIV players Sam Horsfield, Laurie Canter and Adrian Otaegui, who did not compete in the LIV Chicago event.
The following week is the Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland, played at St. Andrews, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie. Gooch, Oosthuizen, Canter, Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace, Peter Uihlein, Shaun Norris, Richard Bland, Jed Morgan and Hennie Du Plessis are scheduled to compete, as are McIlroy, Horschel and Lowry.
“I just wanted to stay out of it for now,” Kaymer said. “I can ask my opinion, should we be there, should we not be there. I took care of my own life, my own state of mind where I want to be. Some guys said it was fine, then they turned around and thought the opposite of what they said. I don’t want to be part of that. Maybe a year or half a year. Don’t know how long it will take. I think things will settle down.”
.