AUGUSTA, Ga. -- While Augusta National Golf Club chairman Fred Ridley commended the success of the five-year-old Augusta National Women's Amateur tournament, he doesn't foresee a scenario in which the club will host a tournament for LPGA Tour and other women's professional golfers.
The Augusta National Women's Amateur, introduced in 2019, includes an international field of 72 women amateurs. They play the first 36 holes at Champions Retreat Golf Club, then a practice round and the final round at Augusta National.
Adding another tournament for professional women's golfers would be too difficult, according to Ridley.
"[T]here are some fundamental difficulties in that," Ridley said during a news conference Wednesday. "We happily were able to find a way to have a competition for juniors and a competition for women amateurs sort of wrapped around the Masters tournament, and it just seems to fit really well.
"To have another tournament of any kind would be very difficult based on our season, based on the fact that this is essentially a winter and spring golf course. It's not open in the summer. It doesn't play the way we want it to play in the fall for a major tournament. We did have one, one time, and Dustin Johnson did very well."
Johnson won the 2020 Masters, which was postponed until mid-November that year because of COVID-19 restrictions. Johnson won with a 72-hole total of 20-under 268, which was a tournament record.
Ridley said having just one professional tournament at Augusta National Golf Club each year also protected the sanctity of the Masters.
"We really have a limited period of time we could play any additional event," Ridley said. "We close in the third week of May. Then you add the element of ... sort of the mystique and the magic. And, you know, we need to make sure that we really respect the mystique and the magic of the Masters, so we would have to think long and hard to have another golf tournament."
During the news conference, Ridley also said Augusta National Golf Club supports rollback measures proposed by the United States Golf Association and The R&A. The ruling bodies announced Dec. 6 that they're changing the equipment testing to ensure that golf balls go shorter for amateurs to pros.
The changes came after a five-year distance study that found PGA Tour players had gained about 30 yards over the past 25 years. The changes are scheduled to go into effect in 2028 for tour and elite golfers and in 2030 for recreational players.
The Masters was played at 6,905 yards in 1990, 6,985 yards in 2000, 7,435 yards in 2010 and 7,545 yards last year.
"Adding distance to the Augusta National golf course has become standard operation over the past two decades," Ridley said. "For almost 70 years, the Masters was played at just over 6,900 yards. Today the course measures 7,550 yards from the markers, and we may well play one of the tournament rounds this year at more than 7,600 yards.
"I've said in the past that I hope we will not play the Masters at 8,000 yards. But that is likely to happen in the not too distant future under current standards. Accordingly, we support the decisions that have been made by the R&A and the USGA as they have addressed the impact of distance at all levels of the game."
Before this year's tournament, Augusta National moved back the tees on the par-5 second hole about 10 yards. Last year, the par-5 13th was lengthened by 35 yards.
"We have some more room, but we don't have a lot," Ridley said. "So I'm holding to that 8,000-yard red line, and I just hope we never get there."
Johnson is one of 13 LIV Golf League members who are competing in the Masters this week. That group includes past champions Jon Rahm, Charl Schwartzel, Sergio Garcia, Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson and Patrick Reed, who earned lifetime exemptions with their victories.
Chile's Joaquin Niemann earned a special invitation from Augusta National to compete in the Masters this year. He finished fifth in the Australian PGA Championship and won the Australian Open.
Other players finished outside the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking last year because they're not receiving points for their finishes in LIV Golf events. LIV Golf applied for recognition from the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) but withdrew its application after OWGR's governing board expressed concern about it being a closed shop, as well as certain aspects of its team competition.
Ridley said Augusta National believes OWGR is a "legitimate determiner of who the best players in the game are."
"Now, historically, and as stated in our qualification criteria, we consider international players for special invitations," Ridley said. "But we do look at those every year, and I will say that if we felt that there were a player or players -- whether they played on the LIV Tour or any other tour -- who were deserving of an invitation to the Masters, that we would exercise that discretion with regard to special invitations."
This week's tournament will be the first time in nearly eight months that top players from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf League will be competing against each other in a major championship.
Ridley wouldn't speculate on whether the sport's fracture might be the cause of declining TV ratings. PGA Tour events are down about 20% across the board this season, and the LIV Golf League has struggled mightily to get footing in the U.S.
"I think part of it is just what's happening in the world of media and the fact that people are consuming content in different ways," Ridley said. "That's happening in all sports -- mobile phones, apps, social media channels, etc. But that's the case with all sports.
"I will acknowledge that, if you look at the data this year, golf viewers are down in linear television while other sports are up. So you can draw your own conclusions. Certainly the fact that the best players in the world are not convening very often is not helpful. Whether or not there's a direct causal effect, I don't know. But I think that it would be a lot better if they were together more often."