Europe’s new Ryder Cup system nonetheless excludes LIV occasions

As the European Ryder Cup team moves to streamline its qualification process for 2025 roster spots, LIV Golf tournaments continue to be excluded as a method for earning points in order to make the squad.

The DP World Tour revealed details Tuesday of the qualifying process for the European team, with the four major tournaments, the top PGA Tour events and the biggest DP World Tour events carrying the most weight. LIV Golf events are excluded from the process completely.

The European side is moving away from a system where the world rankings and the European points list carried the most weight in determining automatic qualifiers on the team. LIV Golf participants do not qualify for world rankings points.

European captain Luke Donald will have to select six wild cards to go along with six automatic qualifiers for the team, which will defend its Ryder Cup title against the United States from Sept. 26-28, 2025, at Bethpage Black Course in Farmingdale, N.Y.

“I am delighted to be able to confirm the details of the qualification process for our 2025 Ryder Cup team,” Donald said in a release. “A lot of work has gone on behind the scenes to get to this point and everything is now focused on doing all we can to retain the trophy in New York next September.”

Europe’s year-long qualifying window opens with the British Masters from Aug. 29-Sept. 1. While points can be accrued on the DP World Tour, they also can be earned in select tournaments in the United States from Jan. 1-Aug. 17 of next year.

“This is without question a much cleaner and simpler qualification system than the ones utilized in previous years and we thank Luke and his vice-captains Edoardo Molinari and Thomas Bjorn for their vital input over the past few months,” PGA European Tour chief executive Guy Kinnings said.

The winning 2023 European team was comprised of Jon Rahm of Spain, Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland and Robert MacIntyre of Scotland, who qualified through the European points list. Viktor Hovland of Norway, and England’s Tyrrell Hatton and Matt Fitzpatrick qualified from the world rankings. Rahm and Hatton are LIV Golf members.

The final six wild-card selections made by Donald were, Tommy Fleetwood of England, Sepp Straka of Austria, Justin Rose of England, Shane Lowry of Ireland, Nicolai Hojgaard of Netherlands and Ludvig Aberg of Sweden.

–Field Level Media