The PGA of America has added LIV Golf to its checklist of accredited excursions successfully making its members instantly eligible for future occasions together with the 2025 PGA Championship and 2025 Ryder Cup. Beforehand, LIV Golf gamers have been granted exemptions into these occasions beneath a “grace interval” that ran by means of June 2024.
With the window now expired, the PGA of America resolved the difficulty making certain those that play on LIV Golf reasonably than the PGA Tour will nonetheless be capable of take part within the biennial Ryder Cup, both by means of qualification (incomes factors by way of success in majors) or captain’s choice, in addition to the PGA Championship ought to they warrant a spot within the discipline.
“To make sure the PGA Championship will proceed to ship the strongest discipline in golf and that the U.S. Ryder Cup crew will proceed to have entry to one of the best American gamers, the PGA of America board has decided that LIV Golf gamers might be eligible for each,” the group mentioned in an announcement.
“Going ahead, all LIV Golf gamers are eligible for the PGA Championship and any American participant who qualifies for the Ryder Cup on factors or is added to the U.S. crew as a captain’s choose is eligible to compete. That is in step with LIV Golf gamers competing within the PGA Championship the previous two years. Brooks Koepka was a member of the U.S. Ryder Cup crew final yr.”
Koepka was contained in the Ryder Cup computerized qualifying vary for many of the 2023 season due to his win on the PGA Championship; he finally fell out however made the crew in Rome by way of captain’s choose from Zach Johnson. The identical destiny might discover Bryson DeChambeau, who presently sits third within the U.S. crew standings, forward of the 2025 occasion.
The PGA of America presently doesn’t award Ryder Cup crew factors for LIV Golf occasions. Which means gamers like Koepka and DeChambeau can solely climb the standings by means of their play within the 4 main championships.
Not like the European crew, which requires gamers to be members of the DP World Tour, the U.S. crew requires gamers to be members of the PGA of America (not the PGA Tour). With a view to keep their memberships, Europeans akin to Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton are required to play in a minimum of 4 DP World Tour occasions per season. As LIV Golf members, they’re additionally required to pay fines for every violation of the DP World Tour’s conflicting event regulation.
“I will have one of the best 12 gamers [at Bethpage], so the PGA of America … we will have the 12 greatest gamers, so they should determine that out, if that is their drawback,” U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley mentioned final month on the BMW Championship. “I do know you need to be a PGA member to play within the Ryder Cup. That is the one stipulation that you just want. So we’ll ensure, if a few of these guys that we expect would possibly make the crew, we’ll make it possible for they’re a member.”