Mike Lorenzo-Vera didn’t fare too well at the Barracuda Championship on Thursday but the more intriguing story revolves around why he didn’t play last week in the ISCO Championship in Kentucky, or for that matter, the Genesis Scottish Open.
There was a “problem getting into the registration system,” the affable Frenchman explained, which kept him out of Kentucky. “Basically, I got shafted.”
The PGA Tour and DP World Tour announced a strategic alliance in November 2020 and for the third consecutive year the Scottish Open was co-sanctioned by the two circuits and represented by roughly 75 players each in the field. The Isco Championship offered 50 spots to players on the DP World Tour, but part of the confusion revolves around different entry deadlines. DP World Tour regulations require a player to enter a tournament by midday on Thursday two weeks before the start of an event while the PGA Tour deadline is 5 p.m. ET on the Friday before an event. In fact, Tom Kim required one of three sponsor’s invites into the Scottish Open last week because his manager missed the DP World Tour’s two-week deadline.
Lorenzo-Vera’s circumstances are a little different as he entered the Scottish Open on time but failed to enter the ISCO Championship, expecting to get into the Scottish. To his dismay, his number didn’t get called for the tournament offering a purse of $9 million and 500 FedEx Cup points to the winner. Even with Sebastian Soderberg pulling out with a rib injury to let Alejandro del Rey get into the Scottish Open, Lorenzo-Vera was the eighth man out.
What’s unclear is if the exemption given to Kim, who is South Korean and sponsored by Genesis, had been earmarked for Lorenzo-Vera and if that had anything to do with him failing to sign up for the opposite-field event in the U.S., which he would have gotten into otherwise.
“There’s been a problem in the system, and they haven’t been able to fix it, which is, I think, a technical thing. I was registered, and it said, not entered. And I said, so what can we do? I asked for an invite to the Scottish Open after working my ass off for the tour for the last four years. And being for once in a very tricky situation, they didn’t help,” Lorenzo-Vera said when asked for clarification on why he didn’t get into the opposite-field event last week in Kentucky with a purse of $4 million and 300 FedEx Cup points to the winner. “And I know Tom (Kim, who got an exemption) is very important to the tournament, but before being a PGA Tour (event), it’s a DP World Tour event, and I think I’m a DP World Tour player, and to have the opportunity when something happened on their side and I’m not able to play, well, huh?”
Asked if he was given an explanation, he said, “Not yet. But I will never have it.”
A DP World Tour media official explained that a lot of its members entered both the Scottish and ISCO tournaments because “if you got into one, you could withdraw from the other without penalty. It appears (Lorenzo-Vera’s) manager assumed he would get into the Scottish Open and didn’t register him for the Isco in time.”
Lorenzo-Vera, 39, turned pro in 2005 and entered the week ranked 123rd on the DP World Tour and No. 341 in the world. He was a supporter of former DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley, who stepped down in April and was succeeded by his second in command, Guy Kinnings.
“He was like a proper guy, like a proper, proper man. Like, no, no, bullshit,” Lorenzo-Vera said of Pelley. “I think he’s been squeezed in a very tricky situation between PGA and PIF. And he tried his best. He did what he believed was right … Definitely miss Keith.”
Lorenzo-Vera said he voiced his complaints directly to Kinnings on his situation and was disappointed with the response.
“Very political. He is the kind of person you cannot really speak with,” he said of Kinnings.“Those guys just don’t care.”
Asked if he has faith in Kinnings to lead the circuit, Lorenzo-Vera said, “After what happened (with Kentucky and then the Scottish Open)? Absolutely not.”
But Lorenzo-Vera conceded that is his personal opinion and that the tour’s leadership is doing a good job in a difficult environment.
“I think when Keith left, it was in a really good position, considering Covid,” the Frenchman said. “I think they are working hard. That’s for sure. That’s something I’ll never take out from them. And they’re trying their best…I know the guys are working really hard on trying to make the tour as global as they can and try to bring money in.”
What would he like to see change? “More transparency to the players,” he said. “We (the European Tour players) always talk about that. And it feels like it’s never gonna happen. So it’s a lost fight.”
Lorenzo-Vera may want to direct some of his angst in this particular situation at his manager for his unscheduled week off, given that he could have been registered for both tournaments and had he gotten into the Scottish a late withdrawal fee for the Isco would have been waived. Still, Lorenzo-Vera said that removing the registration snafu from the equation and the co-sanctioned events as part of the strategic alliance were a good thing.
“I think it’s a better opportunity to play on the PGA Tour,” he said, “because you get two opportunities to get an exemption.”
Nick Lozito contributed original reporting in Truckee, California, to this story.