Should LIV Golf players be allowed to play on the President’s Cup and Ryder Cup?
Discussions about whether LIV players should or should not be able to play at the President’s Cup and Ryder Cup continue to rise
While several of Europe’s top golf players get ready for this week’s Italian Open on the Marco Simone course outside Rome, which will host next year’s Ryder Cup, players who joined the Saudi-backed LIV series are no longer eligible to participate in PGA Tour events, including the Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup and all other tours sanctioned by the circuit.
The pre-tournament discussion continues to be about who can and cannot be included on the 2023 team. Rory Mcilroy, who continues to speak up against LIV players, said on Wednesday that he doesn’t “think any of those guys should be on the Ryder Cup team.”
PGA Tour is ‘hurting’ themselves
On the other hand, Bryson DeChambeau, former U.S. Open champion who joined the controversial league, said he thinks “the team events are only hurting themselves by not allowing us to play, not allowing us to qualify through some capacity, in some facet,’ DeChambeau told reporters ahead of this week’s LIV event in Chicago.
The lucrative LIV series counts 12 major winners among its players, and offers $25 million purses in no-cut 54-hole tournaments.
While the money is massive, LIV Golf, which is bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, is seen by critics as a way for Saudi Arabia to ‘sportswash’ its nation and improve its reputation in the face of criticism over its human rights record.