The move explains why all four Japanese players who participated in the last LIV Golf Invitational Series event in New Jersey are not in this week’s field outside Boston.
Yuki Inamori, Ryosuke Kinoshita, Jinichiro Kozuma and Hideto Tanihara had played at Trump Bedminster in July and formed an all-Japanese team.
Sports Illustrated obtained a copy of the letter sent to members by the Japan Golf Tour this week.  In the letter, the JGTO cites correspondence with the PGA Tour explaining the decision.
All players who participated in LIV Golf events up to that point “remain ineligible for all events on all sanctioned PGA Tour tours through the end of the calendar year, including the Zozo Championship,” according to the letter.

The PGA Tour had no comment, but clarified that the restrictions on LIV players extend to non-playing Japan Tour players and is not specific to the Zozo Championship. Here is the letter: Inamori, ranked 90th in the world, Kinoshita, ranked 119th, and Kozuma, ranked 134th, participated in the Zozo Championship last year. The tournament is an official event on the PGA Tour schedule, played outside Tokyo and co-sanctioned by the Japan Golf Tour (JGTO), which nominates 10 of its members to compete in the event. Scroll to continue

Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama won the Zozo Championship last year and is expected to defend his title in October. The 2021 Masters champion, who also won the Sony Open earlier this year, has long been the subject of speculation about LIV Golf. He told The Associated Press at the Tour Championship that he would not be participating in LIV Golf. It’s unclear whether his decision was based in part on the PGA Tour’s stance on Japanese players, which the JGTO said was first brought to its attention on Aug. 22. The JGTO, in its letter to members, said it was seeking clarification on those who had already competed in LIV events and what it meant for the rest of this year. None of the four players who have competed so far would be allowed to try and qualify on the Korn Ferry Tour, for example. “If a JGTO member does not participate in any other unauthorized events during the 2022-2023 PGA Tour season, they will be eligible to participate in the 2023 Sony Open and the 2023 Zozo Championship,” the letter said. “However, if they participate in further unauthorized events, they will be ineligible for PGA TOUR-sanctioned events through the end of 2023, including the 2023 Zozo Championship.” None of the four Japanese players have any kind of PGA Tour membership. All have mostly played on the Japan Golf Tour as well as the Asian Tour. “We would have loved to have these players join LIV, but we respect their decision given the unfortunate, anti-competitive threats made against them by the PGA Tour,” LIV Golf said in a statement. Stopping players from entering LIV is amazing.” Inamori, Kinoshita and Kozuma played and missed the cut at the PGA Championship this year. Kozuma also missed the cut at the US Open. Inamori won the Japan Players Championship in June while Kozuma won the 2022 Token Homemate Cup. Four other players who competed in Bedminster are not in this week’s field: South Africa’s Hennie Du Plessis and Justin Harding, Australia’s Travis Smyth and Spain’s David Puig. The LIV Golf Invitational Series has used various qualifying criteria along with invitationals to fill out its fields, and all of these players competed in each event. LIV Golf last week joined a lawsuit against the PGA Tour that originally had 11 players but is now seven. The lawsuit alleged that the PGA Tour used monopoly power to try to frustrate competition and unfairly exclude players. Those who participated in LIV Golf matches have been suspended indefinitely. Three of the players in the lawsuit—Talor Gut, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones—sought a temporary restraining order to compete in the FedEx Cup playoffs. Denied on the eve of the first playoff event. In July, the Wall Street Journal reported that the PGA Tour was under investigation by the United States Department of Justice for possible anticompetitive behavior in response to the threat from the LIV Golf Invitational Series.