Presidents Cup To Be Played Without LIV Golfers Once Again

LIV Golf players will be ineligible for Presidents Cup selection in 2024, it has been confirmed, after the full set of qualifying criteria for the team event were published. 

Ahead of next September’s running at Royal Montreal Golf Club, it was announced that all 24 athletes must be eligible to compete in PGA Tour-sanctioned events across the coming season, meaning players like Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, and Cameron Smith won’t be able to feature unless the framework agreement between PIF, the PGA Tour, and the DP World Tour is negotiated to change this.

Koepka was the only LIV player to feature in last month’s Ryder Cup, largely thanks to his third PGA Championship victory which secured him enough qualifying points, while Smith was excluded from the 2022 Presidents Cup team - along with the likes of Joaquin Niemann, Abraham Ancer, Marc Leishman, and Louis Oosthuizen - shortly after joining the breakaway League.

For the upcoming Presidents Cup, the American team will use a qualifying system that awards points to eligible players who participate in full-field FedEx Cup tournaments, signature events, and Major championships between January 1, 2024 and August 25, 2024.

The top six point-scorers by the end of September’s BMW Championship will automatically stamp their ticket to Canada, while the remaining half-a-dozen will be selected by team captain Jim Furyk in the days after the Tour Championship.

Meanwhile, International team captain Mike Weir has also opted to have six wildcard picks - up from four last time - which will compliment the half-a-dozen eligible automatic qualifiers who book their place via their position in the Official World Golf Ranking. LIV Golf recently saw their latest request to become an OWGR-affiliated Tour turned down.

International players who hope to make the team off their own back must have competed in 15 or more OWGR-rated events between September 12, 2022 and the final event prior to next August’s Tour Championship - the BMW Championship - but players will not be penalized for missing time due to injury, illness, or other personal reasons. There is no minimum number of events to be eligible for a captain’s pick, though.

Canadian Weir, who was a vice-captain to Trevor Immelman as Team USA won a ninth-consecutive Presidents Cup 17.5 - 12.5 at Quail Hollow in 2022, had recently admitted that he hoped LIV golfers would be available to him next year but acknowledged a significant breakthrough in negotiations involving the framework agreement would need to be made quickly.

Asked about the merger on Inside The Ropes and how it could impact his selection, Weir said: "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.

"There is still some uncertainty but, hopefully, by the end of the year we will start taking a look at those guys. Cam Smith in particular has been playing great. I know he has been playing great over there on LIV - he would be one of our horses for sure."