As the LIV Golf League does its finest to combine with different prime leagues and golf organizations globally, it continues to obtain pushback from probably the most highly effective individuals in golf. The PGA Tour has banned all LIV Golf gamers and is at the moment embroiled in a lawsuit with a handful of them (together with the league itself) to permit them again into the Tour. On the European facet, the DP World Tour has allowed golfers to play, although it is unclear what the long-term resolution will be there.
That introduced up some bitterness final week on the BMW PGA Championship from gamers like Jon Rahm, Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy, who didn’t all imagine that LIV Golf gamers should be taking the spots of standard DP World Tour gamers. McIlroy reiterated his stance on LIV golfers when he was requested about whether or not they should be on the Ryder Cup subsequent yr in Rome at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club, the place he is enjoying the Italian Open this week.
“I have said it once I’ve said it a hundred times, I don’t think any of those guys should be on the Ryder Cup Team,” McIlroy stated.
The DP World Tour is in a troublesome place. It was legally forced to permit LIV golfers into its occasions this summer time, however given its depleted state and the actual fact that it is just not practically as robust because the PGA Tour, some big-name LIV golfers enjoying may really be attractive for the tour to attract curiosity and attendance (even when it’s primarily based round a little bit of drama).
Then there may be the matter of the Ryder Cup, which McIlroy has talked about a number of instances over the previous few weeks. At a player-commissioner assembly on the BMW PGA Championship final week, Sergio Garcia, a LIV defector, requested DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley whether or not he and others would be allowed to play within the 2023 Ryder Cup. Here’s how it went down, according to Golf Digest.
“Pelley’s response was that they can certainly earn points starting this week, but we don’t know what will happen in the next 12 months. Any more questions? You could hear a pin drop. I was laughing at that point. I had expected this to last at least 90 minutes and maybe get a little hostile. But no. Just about nothing came of it all.”
Golfers are solely capable of earn Ryder Cup factors at OWGR-sanctioned occasions, which for the time being doesn’t embrace the LIV Golf League. Of course, all of this will likely be a non-starter anyway since many of the former Ryder Cuppers who’re involved about their future with the occasion should not enjoying adequate golf to make it anyway. It’s uncertain that Lee Westwood or Ian Poulter would have certified, and although Garcia or Paul Casey might have gotten a captain’s choose, the previous is just not enjoying all that effectively and the latter has been injured very often.
“I wouldn’t say I’ve got much of a relationship with [the Europeans who moved over to LIV Golf] at the minute,” McIlroy stated. “But again, if you’re just talking about Ryder Cup, that’s not the future of the Ryder Cup team. They have played in probably a combined 25 Ryder Cups, 30 Ryder Cups, whatever it is. But the future of the Ryder Cup is the Hojgaards [Nicolai and Rasmus], Bobby Mac [Robert MacIntyre] and whoever else is coming up. They are what we should be thinking about and talking about.”
It’s a fantastic level and one that makes most of this moot. The Euros have a brand new core of McIlroy, Rahm, Lowry, Viktor Hovland, Matt Fitzpatrick and Tyrrell Hatton, and so they’re not trying to lean on their outdated lions any longer.
“I think the European Team has a core of six or seven guys that I think we all know are pretty much going to be on that team, and then it’s up to some of the younger guys to maybe step up,” added McIlroy. … But I think we have been in want of a rebuild, anyway. We did effectively with the identical guys for a really very long time however once more as I simply stated, all the things involves an finish in some unspecified time in the future. I think Whistling Straits is an efficient form of demarcation, I suppose.
“That’s all behind us. We have got a core group of guys but let’s build on that again, and instead of filling those three or four spots with older veterans, let’s blood some rookies and let’s get them in and build towards the future. I think that’s important.”
A hearing is set for the start of 2023 on whether or not LIV golfers can play the DP World Tour. It will be important in the event that they’re allowed to as it pertains to gamers getting OWGR factors so that they will qualify for majors, however as for any of them making it onto the Rome Ryder Cup team? Whether they’re granted the flexibility to play the DP World Tour full-time or not, it’s uncertain that it will even matter.