{"id":280621,"date":"2025-11-09T04:37:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T04:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/280621\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T04:37:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T04:37:20","slug":"ryder-cup-veteran-declares-liv-golf-legitimate-threat-to-pga-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/280621\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryder Cup Veteran Declares LIV Golf \u2018Legitimate Threat\u2019 to PGA Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

LIV Golf\u2019s decision to adopt a 72-hole format<\/a> starting in 2026 has reignited debate across the professional golf world. <\/p>\n

And while some see it as a strategic move to align more closely with traditional tours, Ryder Cup veteran Paul McGinley believes it signals something deeper.<\/p>\n

\"Paul-McGinley-on-LIV-Golf\"<\/p>\n

McGinley, who captained Team Europe to a dominant Ryder Cup victory in 2014 at Gleneagles, didn\u2019t mince words when asked about LIV\u2019s evolving<\/a> structure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s that big a deal,” he told the Bunkered. “I think the self-perpetuating thing is an issue with the world rankings \u2013 54 players playing, all sharing points among themselves. There\u2019s obviously two or three elite players on there that seem to be coming in the top three every single week that they play, which they wouldn\u2019t be doing if they were playing on the PGA Tour which is a lot deeper in terms of talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGinley added, \u201cThere\u2019ll have to be an algorithm and a formula. It\u2019ll probably come out that there will be a lot less points available on LIV events than there will be on the PGA Tour. The depth of the PGA Tour fields, even the smaller fields of 70 players, the depth of those is much, much stronger than the depth of LIV.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the former Ryder Cup winner acknowledged that LIV\u2019s players are gaining traction in major championship pathways. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be a small amount of points available. Events like last week (Hong Kong) and now that the Masters as well as the R&A have opened up a number of International Series events for qualification, that gives the players a great opportunity to still qualify and get into majors.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s already playing out. Northern Irishman Tom McKibbin won the Hong Kong Open, securing his spot in the 2026 Masters and US Open. The 22-year-old\u2019s rapid rise and multimillion-dollar earnings have become a case study in LIV\u2019s appeal. <\/p>\n

\u201cThen when you get into them, it\u2019s a question of playing well in them and maybe trying to win one and get yourself a five-year exemption to all of the majors,\u201d McGinley told Bunkered.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe writing\u2019s on the wall that it\u2019s going to be a matter of time before LIV do get points. It\u2019s a legitimate competitor for both the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour. Because of the huge amount of money that\u2019s put in front of the players and relatively weak fields, the opportunity to make a lot of money is very, very clear. I think they\u2019re a legitimate threat and they\u2019re a legitimate competitor to the DP and the PGA Tours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loading twitter content…<\/p>\n

McGinley also reflected on the DP World Tour\u2019s strategic alliance with the PGA Tour, calling it a \u201csafe bet\u201d amid the exodus of players to LIV. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe PGA Tour is always going to be there and that\u2019s why the DP World Tour decided to have a strategic alliance with them. When you\u2019re trying to secure your future and you\u2019re having to look after the guys that were left behind after a lot went to LIV, the board of the DP World Tour had to take a safe bet and the PGA Tour pathway was a very safe bet. They gave a phenomenal financial deal to the DP World Tour. In time, that will be proved to be a very prudent and smart move.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut to answer your question,\u201d McGinley concluded, \u201cI think LIV is a legit competitor to the two established tours at the moment. It\u2018s becoming more appealing as pathways are opening up to get into major championships and guys like Tom McKibbin jump over and hit the ground running and make many, many millions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

With major qualification routes growing and the 72-hole format finally becoming official, LIV Golf appears to be very close to earning the OWGR points it had been aiming for since its founding in 2022. And, as McGinley points out, the traditional tours might require more than just algorithms and alliances to survive.<\/p>\n

More Golf: PGA Tour Draws Hard Line on LIV Golf Promotions Event<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LIV Golf\u2019s decision to adopt a 72-hole format starting in 2026 has reignited debate across the professional golf…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,10658,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-280621","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-liv-golf","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}