Sixteen of the 156 golfers who competed in the 2023 PGA Championship played for the LIV. Eleven golfers made the weekend cut, including Brooks Koepka and finished in the top twenty.
How many LIV players can we expect at the PGA Championship in 2024? As of now, there aren’t many.
The USGA and Talor Gooch fiasco was a recent example of how major championships have the right to change their qualifying criteria. We’re going assume that the PGA of America uses the same 13 qualifications criteria (and invitations to special events) in 2024 as they did in 2023.
This is how the game shakes out.
Former PGA champions
Get used to seeing Phil Mickelson, Koepka and their lifetime exemptions.
The winners of the five U.S. Winners of the last five U.S.
Bryson deChambeau, who won the 2020 U.S. Open, is now exempt from the PGA until the year 2025.
The last five Masters winners
Dustin Johnson won the PGA in 2020 and is also exempt until 2025.
The winners of the five Open Championships in the past
Cameron Smith has been invited to the 2027 PGA based on his performance at the Open last summer in St. Andrews.
The winners of the three previous Players Championships
Smith also has a double win with his Players award from last spring.
The Official World Golf Ranking International Federation Ranking List: Top 3.
Sihwan Kim is third in the list due to his Asian Tour status. LIV invested $300 million into the Asian Tour, and has created an International Series where LIV players must compete. You shouldn’t expect to see more than one LIV player qualify in this manner.
Senior PGA Champion
The only LIV members in the 50+ club are Richard Bland and Phil Mickelson. They will not be on the field at this week’s KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship in Texas, which takes place May 24-28.
The lowest 15 scorers in the previous PGA Championship and their ties
The top three players (Koepka DeChambeau Smith) who have already qualified in 2024 are those who could have qualified through this exemption. Patrick Reed (T-18), Mito pereira (T-18), and Harold Varner (T-29), were the only players to miss out.
The 20 lowest scorers at the last PGA Professional Championship
This event is not open to LIV players. Next.
The top 70 players in the PGA Championship point list
This list is based on official money earned by the PGA Tour in the last PGA Championship. If you aren’t following closely, there are a few ongoing lawsuits that will prevent this.
The top 100 OWGR players one week prior to the PGA Championship are members of the U.S. Ryder Cup Teams and the European Ryder Cup Teams.
LIV players will almost certainly have to be selected by captains to make the U.S. and European Ryder Cup teams later this fall. Future captains like Westwood, Sergio Garcia, and Ian Poulter recently resigned from their DP World Tour membership. This removed them from consideration for Team Europe.
Since the last PGA Championship, any tournament winner that has been co-sponsored by or approved by the PGA Tour
This criteria is also a wash, as the antitrust suit filed by LIV against the Tour will almost certainly not be decided before next spring.
Special Invitations
The criteria from last year and the current event means that only five players are expected to appear at Valhalla 2024 – Koepka DeChambeau Smith Johnson Mickelson. LIV Golf players could be eligible to compete in the PGA Championship. However, as things stand, other players can only qualify by winning the next three majors, or The Players, or making the 2023 Ryder Cup Team.
Thomas Pieters, for example, could take his skills from the tour to LIV Golf before next spring. The rumor mill has been quiet this season about players defecting to the Saudi Arabian-backed league.
We will wait and watch for now.
