LIV stars to be banned from Scottish Open

James Corrigan of The Telegraph has been all over the comings and goings of the LIV Golf Series and he has this week reported that the LIV players will be banned from playing in next month’s Scottish Open.

Something that was confirmed by a DP World (European) Tour statement on Friday. 

The Scottish Open is the traditional curtain-raiser to the following week's Open and this means that the likes of Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter will not be able to compete the week before.

The Renaissance Club in North Berwick has been the home to the Scottish Open in recent years and, while it's not the ultimate classic links, it does provide a week of links golf ahead of the big one.

It is also a co-sanctioned event with the PGA Tour, hence the ban, and a Rolex Series event and therefore offers a huge prize pot of $8m. Not that this will mean too much to the LIV players.

The DP World Tour also revealed that the players who played at Centurion would be fined £100,000 and suspended from also playing in the co-sanctioned Barbasol Championship (July 7-10) and the Barracuda Championship (July 14-17).

The good news for the Scottish Open is that all four current Major champions - Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa and our new US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick are in the field in North Berwick.

The Open, though, like the PGA Championship and US Open, has stated that the LIV players will be able to tee it up at St Andrews.

In a fairly pointed statement the R&A's CEO Martin Slumbers said: “The Open is golf’s original championship and since it was first played in 1860, openness has been fundamental to its ethos and unique appeal. Players who are exempt or have earned a place through qualifying for The 150th Open in accordance with the entry terms and conditions will be able to compete in the Championship at St Andrews.

"We are focused on staging a world class championship in July and celebrating this truly historic occasion for golf. We will invest the proceeds of The Open, as we always do, for the benefit of golf which reflects our purpose to ensure that the sport is thriving 50 years from now.”