International Presidents Cup captain Geoff Ogilvy said this week that he has asked the PGA Tour about including LIV Golf players on his team every year since taking the job, and that the answer has not changed ahead of the matches at Medinah Country Club from September 24 to 27. The PGA Tour owns the Presidents Cup and has barred LIV players from it since 2022, which Australian Golf Digest reports cost Ogilvy any chance of selecting Cameron Smith, Lucas Herbert and Joaquin Niemann. Ogilvy told Fox Sports Australia the Internationals “got hurt a little harder than the US team did.”
The reason one team event can lock those players out while another can't is a question of who owns the trophy, and that's the third section.
Golf Raw was not at Ogilvy's media availability and has not spoken to him, the PGA Tour or any player. Quotes come from Australian Golf Digest and Fox Sports Australia, the latter as syndicated. Rosters come from the Presidents Cup announcement as reported by Golf Monthly and Golf Digest.
What Ogilvy actually said
He asked. More than once. He's said so plainly.
“I asked it a few times. I asked it two years ago when this job started,” Ogilvy told Australian Golf Digest, describing his campaign to have LIV players considered. Fox Sports Australia, via syndication, reports he raised it again last year and again this month.
The Tour's answer, as Ogilvy relayed it to Australian media in a report carried by Yardbarker, was that it was “not going to be no chance,” but that they'd have to see how things unfolded. Nothing has unfolded far enough.
On the competitive effect, he was direct. He told Fox Sports that Trevor Immelman got very unlucky in 2022, losing three or four players who'd have made the team a month out, and that the International side has been hurt harder than the Americans. He also called LIV's future a great unknown at this point.
None of that is a complaint about the rules. It's a captain describing a pool he can't draw from.
The names it cost him
Half the 2019 Royal Melbourne team. That's the figure Fox Sports Australia puts on the drain.
Australian Golf Digest names Smith, Herbert and Niemann as the players Ogilvy couldn't touch. Aussie Golfer adds Marc Leishman and Elvis Smylie to the Australians on LIV and therefore ineligible, which it says lops the top off the list before a captain sits down. Golf Digest's roster analysis says at least two LIV players, Niemann and Herbert, could have strengthened the side, and calls the event absurdly lopsided for most of its existence.
| Player | Country | Status | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cameron Smith | Australia | LIV, ineligible | 2022 Open champion |
| Joaquín Niemann | Chile | LIV, ineligible | Most tournament wins in LIV history |
| Lucas Herbert | Australia | LIV, ineligible | Named by Golf Digest as a roster upgrade |
| Marc Leishman | Australia | LIV, ineligible | Veteran of multiple International teams |
| Elvis Smylie | Australia | LIV, ineligible | Ogilvy's pool shrinks further |
The 12 he could pick: Si Woo Kim, Ryan Fox, Hideki Matsuyama, Min Woo Lee, Tom Kim and Adam Scott as automatic qualifiers, with Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Corey Conners, Sungjae Im and debutants Nico Echavarría, Ryo Hisatsune and Nick Taylor as picks, per Golf Monthly.
Jason Day was left off. Aussie Golfer reports back trouble ruined his year, that he walked off after nine holes at the U.S. Open, missed the playoffs for the first time in 18 years, and carries a 3-12-3 Presidents Cup record. Ogilvy said he'd started speaking to Day in June.
Golf Raw's read: two Australians, Scott and Lee, in a 12-man International team, with five more Australians sitting on a league that may not exist next year. That's the whole imbalance in one country.
Why the Ryder Cup found a way and the Presidents Cup hasn't
Here's the loop from the top. The PGA Tour owns the Presidents Cup. Australian Golf Digest describes it as PGA Tour-owned and a no-go zone for LIV players since 2022, with the Tour denying LIV golfers the chance to qualify or be selected.
The Ryder Cup is a different animal. Golf Digest's reporting on the Trump Bedminster decision earlier this year noted the PGA of America is a separate organisation from the PGA Tour, and it co-owns the Ryder Cup with the European side. European LIV members have kept a route to it through DP World Tour membership, which is why Yahoo Sports and Golfmagic reported this month on Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton and others weighing their 2027 Ryder Cup eligibility.
So a Spaniard on LIV can protect a Ryder Cup future. An Australian on LIV has no equivalent, because the only team event open to him is run by the tour he left.
There's one more wrinkle. Golf Digest notes Patrick Reed is eligible for PGA Tour events again after serving a year-long suspension following his LIV departure, and had a case for the U.S. team earlier in the year. The door back exists. It's a year-long wait after leaving, and it only opens for players who've actually left.
What's unresolved
Whether LIV exists in 2027 in any form, for a start.
Reuters, carrying the Financial Times, reported on August 31 that LIV may file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as soon as this week, with settlement offers to players at a few cents on the dollar. Ogilvy's “great unknown” line lands in that context. If LIV shrinks or folds, the eligibility question answers itself for some of these players, on a timeline nobody controls.
What Golf Raw couldn't find: any statement from the PGA Tour on the record about a pathway for LIV players into a future Presidents Cup, or any confirmation of what was said in the conversations Ogilvy describes. That's his account, and it's the only one published.
The Americans have won ten in a row, per Golf Monthly. The Internationals last won in 1998. Ogilvy, per Australian Golf Digest, wants his team to feel more like Europe's Ryder Cup side, with dinners, practice rounds together and an outing at Medinah last year. His design firm renovated the course. He needs every edge he can find, because the biggest one was taken off the table before he started.
FAQ
Why can't LIV players compete in the Presidents Cup?
Because the PGA Tour owns and runs the event and has denied LIV golfers the chance to qualify or be selected since 2022, per Australian Golf Digest. The Ryder Cup is co-owned by the PGA of America and the European side, and European LIV members have kept eligibility through DP World Tour membership.
Did Ogilvy try to get LIV players onto his team?
Yes, by his own account. He told Australian Golf Digest he asked when he took the job two years ago and has asked a few times since. He relayed the Tour's response as not being no chance, but dependent on how things unfold. Nothing has changed.
Which players did the ban cost the International team?
Australian Golf Digest names Cameron Smith, Lucas Herbert and Joaquín Niemann. Aussie Golfer adds Marc Leishman and Elvis Smylie among Australians on LIV. Golf Digest says Niemann and Herbert in particular could have strengthened Ogilvy's roster.
The Raw Verdict
Ogilvy has done the honest thing three years running, which is ask, get told to wait, and say so out loud. The PGA Tour has done the consistent thing, which is protect its membership rules on the one team event it owns while the Ryder Cup, which it doesn't own, worked out a route.
For the paying fan at Medinah, the effect is the same as it was in Montreal and Charlotte: one team picks from the whole world minus its best expatriates, the other picks from the deepest pool in golf. Watch the matches anyway. Just don't let anyone sell you the result as a measure of where international golf stands, because a third of it isn't allowed in the building.
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Author. Golf Raw Editorial Staff monitors tournament golf, player data, and professional tours.
Corrections. None at publication. Corrections policy.
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