When Dustin Johnson won the 2020 Masters, delayed until November due to Covid-19, we thought it meant he had qualified for the other three Majors for the next five years.
Johnson's Green Jacket triumph gets him into The Masters for life, while he is in the US Open until 2026 after winning at Oakmont nine years ago so he doesn't need to worry about that until 2027.
The PGA Championship and Open Championship are the two Majors he hasn't won, though, so he has to rely on other means to make those.
We assumed his 2020 Masters win got him into all Majors for the 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 seasons due to a five-year exemption but, as pointed out by Flushing It Golf on X, that isn't the case.
Dustin Johnson’s exemption for his 2020 Masters win ended last season because the category is “last 5 winners of the Masters”, meaning Rory’s win this year is the 5th. This continues a list of players on the LIV Golf League being awarded a late invite to next week’s event.May 6, 2025
The PGA Championship only gives an exemption to the last five Masters champions, and Dustin Johnson isn't one of those. Since his win in 2020, there have been five Masters, won by Matsuyama in 2021, Scheffler in 2022, Rahm in 2023, Scheffler in 2024 and McIlroy in 2025.
That's why he required a special exemption into the 2025 PGA at Quail Hollow, and that's exactly what he has received after the full PGA Championship field was confirmed.
Had Johnson won The Masters in its usual April spot, he would have had his five year exemption starting from 2020.
The Covid delay means he essentially missed out on the first year of his five-year exemptions into the other Majors (which he didn't need anyway, to be fair), so the PGA Championship has essentially rectified that with the special invite.
It means that he is also not eligible for The Open Championship, currently, as that also only invites the last five Masters champions. The two-time Major winner may opt to play in Final Qualifying, which takes place on Tuesday July 1 across various UK courses in the week after LIV Golf Dallas and the week before LIV Golf Andalucia.
The former World No.1 was 2nd at the 2019 PGA Championship to Brooks Koepka at Bethpage and also T2nd at the 2020 PGA to Collin Morikawa at TPC Harding Park. He has missed four of his last six Major cuts, with his last top-10 coming at the 2023 US Open.
Johnson will be one of 16 LIV Golfers in the PGA Championship field.
