Should LIV Players Be Eligible For The Ryder Cup?

Team golf has been one of the casualties in pro golf’s civil war.

For evidence, just look at the rosters for this week’s Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal Golf Club in Canada. The Presidents Cup—which is run by the PGA Tour—is missing at least a handful of LIV players who used to compete in the event. Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann would definitely add to the match if they could play.

Most golf fans don’t care too much about the Presidents Cup so missing those players isn’t anything to cry about. However, negatively impacting the Ryder Cup—an event with an illustrious, passionate history—would be worth a few tears.

We’ve already seen LIV’s existence affect the Ryder Cup. Henrik Stenson was supposed to be the European captain before he left for LIV and got the boot from the DP World Tour which runs the European Ryder Cup. Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia, Paul Casey, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell and Lee Westwood were among the defects who weren’t included in Rome. None of them were likely to play but they could have been vice-captains. All (or at least most) of them figured to be eventual captains in the future.

But for the most part, the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome didn’t have any noticeable omissions. The U.S. team had Brooks Koepka (the only LIV player involved) and the European team wasn’t really missing any key cogs. (The American side, which is organized by the PGA of America, took a softer stance than the Europeans who had to protect their DP World Tour against LIV.)

That could change now looking ahead to the 2025 Ryder Cup. Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton—fixtures on the European team—are now with LIV. Even Garcia is up to No. 22 in Data Golf’s rankings which would normally put him in contention for a spot.

Not having Rahm and Hatton would absolutely devalue the competition.

So what is going to happen here? Will LIV players be in the Ryder Cup? Should they be?

Some LIV Europeans have an eye toward eligibility

The PGA of America has already stated that all LIV players will be eligible for the American team.

“To ensure that the PGA Championship will continue to deliver the best field in golf and that the U.S. Ryder Cup team will continue to have access to the best American players, the PGA of America have determined that that LIV Golf players will be eligible for both,” the organization said in a statement.

That means DeChambeau, Koepka and other Americans on LIV can be picked. They might struggle to make the team on points but they can be selected as captain’s picks.

The other side of the equation is a lot murkier.

The European Ryder Cup team mandates that players must compete in four DP World Tour events per season in order to maintain their Tour membership, making them eligible for the squad. That is difficult for LIV players given the 14-event schedule they have to play, plus the four majors (the majors don’t count toward the DP World Tour event total).

The DP World Tour has also levied sanctions against LIV players who have competed in weeks opposing DP World Tour events. Players who have not resigned their DP World Tour membership have outstanding fines on the books.

“I’m not a big fan of the fines,” Rahm said. “I think I’ve been outspoken about that. I don’t intend to pay the fines and we keep trying to have a discussion with them about how we can make this happen.”

Rahm’s main contention with the fines is that many LIV events fall opposite of lower-tier DP World Tour events that Rahm would not have played. Among European tour events opposite LIV this year were stops in Bahrain, South Africa, Japan, China and the Czech Republic.

As a way to buy more time, Rahm, Hatton and Adrian Meronk have opted to appeal those sanctions, which temporarily allows them to compete on the DP World Tour.

The European tour said in a statement, “Jon Rahm has a pending appeal against sanctions imposed on him and in accordance with the DP World Tour’s Regulations, he is eligible to participate in the (Spanish Open) later this month.”

Those players can now enter into the four events—until an independent panel decides if they must pay the fines. The Olympics counts as one of the four tournaments so Rahm only needs three more starts.

Rahm is entered into this week’s Spanish Open, although he may not make it in time after being state-side for the birth of his third child. The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is the following week, which Rahm also intends to play. There are enough weeks remaining to where the players could comfortably reach four DP World Tour events.

“I’ll take today as a nice little victory for me personally to know that Jon is eligible and can play his three events now,” 2025 European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald said. “What happens in the future, I can’t tell. What happens in 15 months, I think all of us thought something more would happen.”

Will the DP World Tour intervene to prevent these players from maintaining membership? That remains to be seen.

In the absence of that, it looks like these players will be eligible next year.

However, players who have resigned their membership are still on the outside looking in. That includes Garcia, Westwood, Poulter and others who chose to avoid sanctions by resigning from the DP World Tour.

But Tour-PIF negotiations could change everything

Gears in the pro golf world machine are moving slower than once thought possible. Almost 16 months removed from the initial framework agreement between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, we are still waiting for answers to how (or if) the golf world comes back together.

If there is some movement in the next year—the Ryder Cup is not until September 2025—perhaps there will be some clarity here.

The DP World Tour is aligned with the PGA Tour so it’s possible a formal agreement could provide a resolution. Namely, the DP World Tour may drop its sanctions against LIV players and allow them the freedom to play a certain number of European tour events without penalty.

That might be wishful thinking but at least officials from the Tour and PIF have been meeting.

Philosophically, I’m of the mind that the Ryder Cup eligibility shouldn’t be impacted by what tour membership a player has. The match is supposed to be the 12 best players from the U.S. against the 12 best players from Europe. It would be a travesty to sacrifice that.

However, the players who left for LIV were fully aware of the rules. They accepted money with the knowledge that they might never get into another Ryder Cup. And the DP World Tour has every right to protect itself. There have always been eligibility rules for the Ryder Cup, long before LIV existed.

It’s hard to feel sorry for any of those players—they were paid handsomely for the inconvenience—but it would also be painful to see the Ryder Cup diminished in any form.

I’m praying we get some form of truce so the Ryder Cup dodges any harm. My hope is the agreement gives LIV players a path to become eligible, even if they have to be captain’s picks.

The Presidents Cup is already an exhibition in the true sense of the word but the Ryder Cup is the exact opposite. It’s the best pure Event (with a capital ‘E’) that we have in the game. It’s the one tournament where money doesn’t matter—seeing it impacted by money-hungry golfers with no respect for history would be among the worst tragedies golf has absorbed in the past three years.

What do you think will happen? Should LIV players get to compete in team competitions?

Let me know below in the comments.

Top Photo Caption: Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton are hoping to be eligible for the 2025 Ryder Cup. (GETTY IMAGES/Charlotte Tattersall)