The PGA of America has added LIV Golf to its list of approved tours effectively making its members immediately eligible for future events including the 2025 PGA Championship and 2025 Ryder Cup. Previously, LIV Golf players were granted exemptions into those events under a "grace period" that ran through June 2024.
With the window now expired, the PGA of America resolved the issue ensuring those who play on LIV Golf rather than the PGA Tour will still be able to participate in the biennial Ryder Cup, either through qualification (earning points via success in majors) or captain's selection, as well as the PGA Championship should they warrant a spot in the field.
"To ensure the PGA Championship will continue to deliver the strongest 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 board has determined that LIV Golf players will be eligible for both," the organization said in a statement.
"Going forward, all LIV Golf players are eligible for the PGA Championship and any American player who qualifies for the Ryder Cup on points or is added to the U.S. team as a captain's pick is eligible to compete. This is consistent with LIV Golf players competing in the PGA Championship the past two years. Brooks Koepka was a member of the U.S. Ryder Cup team last year."
Koepka was inside the Ryder Cup automatic qualifying range for most of the 2023 season thanks to his win at the PGA Championship; he ultimately fell out but made the team in Rome via captain's pick from Zach Johnson. The same fate could find Bryson DeChambeau, who currently sits third in the U.S. team standings, ahead of the 2025 event.
The PGA of America currently does not award Ryder Cup team points for LIV Golf events. That means players like Koepka and DeChambeau can only climb the standings through their play in the four major championships.
Unlike the European team, which requires players to be members of the DP World Tour, the U.S. team requires players to be members of the PGA of America (not the PGA Tour). In order to maintain their memberships, Europeans such as Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton are required to play in at least four DP World Tour events per season. As LIV Golf members, they are also required to pay fines for each violation of the DP World Tour's conflicting tournament regulation.
"I'm going to have the best 12 players [at Bethpage], so the PGA of America ... 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 last month at the 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."
