Can LIV Golfers Play In The Presidents Cup?

Following the launch of LIV Golf in 2022, it didn’t take long for the PGA Tour to dash any hopes players who joined the breakaway circuit had of making it to that year's Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow.

No sooner had the first LIV Golf tee shot been struck, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan published a strongly worded letter explaining LIV Golf players were "suspended or otherwise no longer eligible to participate in PGA Tour tournament play, including the Presidents Cup.”

While that meant players of the caliber of US star Brooks Koepka and Australian Cameron Smith ultimately missed out, much has changed at the top of the men's elite game since those fractious early days of LIV Golf, not least the desire to bring the two warring parties together.

The 6 June 2023 announcement that the PGA Tour and Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) that bankrolls LIV Golf were trying to thrash out a way for the two to coexist may have given some hope to LIV players that they could make the 2024 edition. However, four months later, the full set of qualifying criteria was published, which confirmed that - short of an agreement - once again, they would be absent.

The criteria stated that the American team would use a qualifying system that awarded points to eligible players who competed in full-field FedEx Cup tournaments, signature events, and Majors between 1 January 2023 and 25 August 2024, with the top six claiming automatic qualification immediately after the BMW Championship.

That still leaves six wildcards, which captain Jim Furyk will name on 3 September, but the kicker came with another stipulation in the criteria: “All players (automatic qualifiers and captain’s picks) must be eligible to compete in PGA Tour-sanctioned competitions."

As for the International Team, its players needed to have competed in 15 or more Official World Golf Ranking events between 12 September and the BMW Championship – not an easy feat for LIV golfers given the circuit’s ineligibility for ranking points. Still, that appeared to at least offer a glimmer of hope that some players could squeeze onto the team with excellent performances in ranking events.

Once again, though, it’s not to be, and it’s also down to the need for all 12 players to be eligible for PGA Tour-sanctioned events.

That will have come as a blow to International Team captain Mike Weir, who, before the criteria was published, told Inside The Ropes of the talks between the PGA Tour and PIF: "I am anxious and hopeful that we hear something sooner rather than later. Hopefully by the end of the year so I can formulate some things in my head of potential guys that can make the team.

"I really can't say until it is all finalised but if it is finalised, yes, I will definitely take a look at it and take a look at those guys. I will probably be having some conversations with them and hopefully their interest is high to play in it if that is a possibility.”

Sadly for Weir, the initial deadline for an agreement came and went at the turn of the year, and he conceded to the media in March that LIV golfers wouldn’t feature for the International Team.

With a deal still not struck just a month away from the Royal Montreal Golf Club match, US players remain ineligible, too, meaning that, for the second edition in a row, LIV golfers won’t be appearing.