Louis Oosthuizen has admitted that missing this year's Presidents Cup is "a punch in the gut", with his decision to join the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series making him ineligible to feature in the tournament.
Oosthuizen was one of the first players to defect to LIV and resigned his PGA Tour membership as a result. However, the 39-year-old hoped that by remaining part of the Sunshine Tour in his native South Africa, he would still be able to earn a captain's pick for the Presidents Cup.
But PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan stated that golfers who had joined LIV were "no longer eligible to participate in PGA Tour tournament play, including the Presidents Cup." When asked about missing the tournament during LIV's fifth event in Chicago, Oosthuizen admitted: "There's a lot of pangs about missing next week.
"I think of us who are here—Charl [Schwartzel], Branden [Grace], Carlos [Ortiz] —they would love to be able to play. It's a bit of a stinger.
"I thought by resigning my membership before I did anything wrong really... there's no rule that says I need to be a PGA Tour member to play the Presidents Cup, especially as an International team player."
Despite not being allowed to feature, Oosthuizen will still be supporting the International team, which is being captained by his compatriot Trevor Immelman this year. "I will be rooting 150 percent for the International team," Oosthuizen added.
"It's always been one of my favourite weeks of the year. It's a bit of a punch in the gut not to be able to play that. More so, not being able to be one of the players who is with a South African captain.
"I feel the most bad for Trev. Trevor's a good friend. We text each other. He knew my decision beforehand. But still, it sucks. I wanted to play for him. He's going to be a great captain.
"He was a co-captain last time around with Ernie [Els]. It just sucks that I can't be around to try and do anything for the team."
