The PGA of America has made LIV players eligible for the PGA Championship and U.S. Ryder Cup team after the organization added LIV to its list of approved tours.
“It’s more of a cleanup,” Kerry Haigh, the association’s chief championships officer and interim CEO, told GolfChannel.com. “We’ve added the LIV tour to the list of tours that are eligible towards A-3 membership, which all [PGA] Tour members are eligible for. The LIV players had previously been [PGA of America] members but had we not done this they would have had to go through more requirements which no other tour members are asked to do.”
Players who had joined LIV Golf had been granted a “grace period” for last year’s Ryder Cup – which allowed Zach Johnson to select Brooks Koepka as one of his captain’s picks – but it had been unclear how the PGA of America would continue to navigate the divide in professional golf.
Although the move stops short of granting Ryder Cup team points for earnings or finishes on LIV Golf, it does pave the way for players like Bryson DeChambeau, who won the U.S. Open in June and is currently third on the U.S. points list, to play for the American side next year at Bethpage Black as well as to continue to play in the PGA Championship.
Historically, the PGA has used the major championships and select PGA Tour events to award points for U.S. Ryder Cup team qualification and when asked if the association has considered adding finishes at LIV events to that criteria Haigh said, “That has not been discussed.”
“I’m going to have the best 12 players, so the PGA of America, they – we’re going to have the 12 best players, so they need to figure that out, if that’s their problem,” U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley said at last month’s BMW Championship. “I know you have to be a PGA member to play in the Ryder Cup. That’s the only stipulation that you need. So we’ll make sure if some of those guys that we think might make the team, we’ll make sure that they are a member.”
LIV players will be offered A-3 membership into the PGA of America, the same granted PGA Tour players as well as players on nine other circuits around the world including the DP World Tour.
“All these players would have still been eligible in the short term but they would have had to do additional requirements [to maintain membership],” said Haigh, who was tabbed as the interim CEO after former chief executive Seth Waugh stepped down in June. “LIV players have always been eligible and this cleanup of the bylaws just makes it more consistent with the other tours and will allow the best players in the world to play the PGA Championship and represent the U.S. team at the Ryder Cup, which has always been the case.”
The European Ryder Cup team had already created a pathway for LIV golfers to play in the biennial matches, albeit a much more expensive option that has been criticized by Jon Rahm. The only stipulation for a European player is that they maintain their membership on the DP World Tour, which means they must play a minimum of four European tour events per year. However, those who joined LIV Golf are required to pay fines for violating the circuit’s policies for conflicting events and media right releases.
Last week, LIV Golf’s Rahm appealed those fines and said he planned to play the DP World Tour minimum, which counts his start at the Paris Olympics, that would make him eligible for next year’s matches.
“I’m not a big fan of the fines,” Rahm said last week. “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.”
