Which LIV Golfers Will Feel Hard Done By After Missing Out On PGA Championship Invites?

There are 16 players from the LIV Golf League that will tee it up at Quail Hollow for the PGA Championship, but should there be more?

Pathways are starting to open up for direct access from LIV Golf to the Majors, but numbers are very limited and with still no Official World Golf Ranking points it's hard to get into the big four.

Previous winners of The Masters and PGA Championship can play in those events for life, while there's a lengthy exemption for Open champions too, but otherwise the five-year passes into the full set of Majors are starting to run out.

Dustin Johnson needing an invite to play in the 2025 PGA Championship is a prime example, and others will need them in the coming years.

Some, Bubba Watson for example, believe more direct places should be available for LIV Golf players, but those plugging away on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour would argue against it.

It all means that several LIV Golf players are on the outside looking in as we head to Quail Hollow, as with six of the top 10 in the individual standings playing in the PGA Championship, those other four at least will feel hard done to.

Two winners from the 2025 LIV Golf season have not made the PGA Championship, and while you can argue how much that's actually worth, winning a golf tournament of any kind is always an achievement.

So who will be feeling most upset at not making the PGA Championship field?

Lucas Herbert

Sitting in fifth spot in the LIV Golf individual rankings, the Australian will feel unlucky to miss out when seventh-placed David Puig got an invite from the PGA of America along with Tom McKibbin who is only down in 22nd.

There are other reasons for those of course, but Herbert will be desperately disappointed as he had a decent run at the PGA Championship when he finished T8 and T9 in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

To his credit, Herbert has been philosophical in his reaction to missing out, and responded by showcasing his ability with a brilliant 62 in the opening round of the International Series Japan event on the Asian Tour.

Marc Leishman

Another man who'll feel he should possibly be playing in the PGA Championship is Marc Leishman, who sits in 10th spot in the LIV Golf individual standings and has also bagged a tournament win this year.

The 2025 LIV Golf Miami champion ticks a couple of boxes that may well be used in the future to allocate spots in Majors - sitting in the top 10 the week before or having won an event.

For now, though, Leishman's wait for a first Major appearance since the 2022 Open Championship goes on.

Adrian Meronk

Like Leishman, the only other LIV Golf winner this year not in the PGA Championship is Adrian Meronk, who misses out despite winning the season opener under the lights in Riyadh.

He's currently 13th in the LIV individual standings so maybe that counted against him, and his Major form last year was not great as he missed the cut in three of them and finished T50 at the Open.

The big Pole also hasn't managed another top 10 since winning in Riyadh, and missed the cut in his one DP World Tour appearance this year in Dubai, so his entire body of work over the season perhaps let him down.

Sebastian Munoz

A solid LIV season so far for Sebastian Munoz puts him in sixth in the standings with a season's best second in Riyadh in the opener - he is one place above Puig though which could annoy him.

The Colombian has four top 10s overall in seven events and could point to outperforming Puig in both results and consistency so far this season.

Carlos Ortiz

Carlos Ortiz is ninth in the LIV standings with a runners-up spot and a fourth this season, but he has other claims to be involved in the PGA Championship as he tops the Asian Tour Order of Merit the week before the Major.

Maybe that should be a criteria? He's also a winner after claiming the title at the International Series Macau event, which was enough to book his place in The Open, but not enough to get him in the line-up at Quail Hollow.