Augusta National has announced that it will not ban LIV Golf members from the 2023 Masters tournament.

In a statement, Augusta National and Masters chairman Fred Ridley wrote: “Regrettably, recent actions have divided men’s professional golf by diminishing the virtues of the game and the meaningful legacies of those who built it.”

However, while Ridley said he was “disappointed” in these developments, “our focus is to honour the tradition of bringing together a pre-eminent field of golfers.”

“Therefore, as invitations are sent this week, we will invite those eligible under our current criteria to compete in the 2023 Masters Tournament,” Ridley said. “As we have said in the past, we look at every aspect of the tournament each year, and any modifications or changes to invitation criteria for future Tournaments will be announced in April.”

The news is not necessarily surprising, especially after the US Open and Open Championship allowed LIV Golf members to compete in their events last summer. Conversely, there was some question if LIV members would be invited to Augusta next spring after the club was named in LIV Golf’s antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. Specifically, that Augusta National and Ridley tried to persuade players from joining the circuit.

Six current LIV Golf players have lifetime exemptions into the Masters as past champions: Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia, Bubba Watson, Charl Schwartzel and Phil Mickelson. Cameron Smith, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka will earn invites for winning majors in the past five years. Joaquin Niemann will be in the field for reaching the 2022 Tour Championship, while Talor Gooch, Harold Varner III, Jason Kokrak, Kevin Na, Abraham Ancer and Louis Oosthuizen get invites for being inside the Official World Golf Rankings’ top 50.

The 2023 Masters begins April 7. Scottie Scheffler is the defending champ.