Bryson DeChambeau says LIV stars ‘deserve’ Ryder Cup spots

Bryson DeChambeau believes LIV golfers should have a pathway into the game’s biggest events.

Brian Keogh

Bryson DeChambeau believes LIV Golf stars “deserve” to be included in the US Ryder Cup team to face Europe in Rome in September.

While skipper Zach Johnson swerved the thorny issue of players like DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, or PGA champion Brooks Koepka qualifying for his team at Oak Hill last week, DeChambeau believes they should be able to play.

Koepka is second in the US Ryder Cup rankings after his win at Oak Hill, while DeChambeau, Cameron Smith, Mito Pereira and Patrick Reed finished in the top 20.

“Like Brad Faxon said, we’re playing for our country, not playing for a Tour, not playing for money,” said DeChambeau, who tied for fourth on Sunday. “He’s right. If we’re good enough to be selected or even make it on the points through Majors, which is insane, we deserve that spot.”

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DeChambeau is exempt for the Majors until the end of 2025, but with no world ranking points awarded to LIV Golf, he believes they should have a path into the game’s biggest events.

“There’s been numerous ideas brought up,” he said. “I think one that we’re all looking at right now, at least from my perspective, is just creating an exemption category for LIV players based on how they play during the course of the year,” he said ahead of this week’s LIV Golf event at Trump National Washington.

“I think that would be the most fair and opportune thing for LIV golfers considering the fields that we have, the Major champions we have, and the elite level of play that we have each and every week.”

The PGA Tour is at Colonial for the Charles Schwab Challenge, where Oak Hill hero Michael Block tees up after making a final round ace alongside Rory McIlroy en route to finishing tied 15th. He revealed he’s been offered $50,000 for the seven-iron he used for his ace and had even received a message from Michael Jordan.

“I’m a big Jordan guy my whole life,” he said. “I was a kid in Iowa saving 100 bucks for a pair of Jordans back in the day. Pretty darn cool, to say the least.”

Meanwhile, Paul McGinley joins Darren Clarke and Pádraig Harrington in the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship in Dallas, looking to hone his game for next month’s Irish Legends at Seapoint, where 2005 US Open champion Michael Campbell is also set to play.

Tom McKibbin and John Murphy play the KLM Open as Paul Dunne, Conor Purcell, Cormac Sharvin, Niall Kearney, Stuart Grehan, Jonathan Yates and Dermot McElroy play the Denmark Copenhagen Challenge and Olivia Mehaffey the Belgian Ladies Open.

Charles Schwab Challenge, Sky Sports, 5.30pm; KLM Open ,Sky Sports, 12.30pm

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