LIV Golf’s Oosthuizen turns down PGA Championship invite

MIAMI: Louis Oosthuizen declined a special invitation to the 106th PGA Championship due to an undisclosed personal commitment, leaving the number of LIV Golf players in next week’s field at 16.

The contingent will be lead by defending champion Brooks Koepka, a three-time winner of the event who is coming off a victory in LIV’s Singapore event last week. The eight other LIV players who qualified for the event are Bryson DeChambeau, Tyrrell Hatton, Dustin Johnson, Martin Kaymer, Phil Mickelson, Andy Ogletree, Jon Rahm and Cam Smith.

Talor Gooch revealed Monday that he had received an invitation. He will be joined by six other LIV players to receive special invites: Former Masters champion Patrick Reed along with Joaquin Niemann, Dean Burmester, Adrian Meronk, Lucas Herbert and David Puig.

Reed, who has played in every major since the 2014 Masters, moved back inside the top 100 of the Official World Golf Ranking at No. 92 with his tie for 12th at Augusta National last month. Niemann won the Australian Open in December and sits atop LIV’s individual points standings on the strength of two event wins.

Notable names who did not receive invitations include another former Masters champion in Sergio Garcia along with Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz. Garcia has fallen to 714th in the rankings with a lone top-10 in an OWGR event -- a T5 at last year’s International Series Oman -- since signing with LIV and giving up his DP World Tour membership.