The second major of the year, the 2025 PGA Championship, is about to begin at Quail Hollow. Among the large field of top pros are 16 LIV Golf players. Here’s everything you need to know about the LIV pros playing this week’s PGA Championship and how they earned their spots.
Qualifying for majors is difficult for LIV players, because currently LIV Golf events do not award Official Golf World Ranking points. A high placement in the world ranking is one of the best ways to qualify for majors.
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Some LIV players did make the field based on world ranking (such as Patrick Reed). Others qualified thanks to recent major wins, or by finishing in the top 15 at the 2024 PGA Championship (Bryson DeChambeau fits all three of those criteria).
Past PGA champions earn a lifetime exemption into the tournament, which is how players like Phil Mickelson made the field.
Meanwhile, a select few received special invitations to play this year’s PGA (such as Tom McKibbin).
Below you’ll find all 16 of the LIV Golf players playing this week at Quail Hollow.
Bryson DeChambeau: DeChambeau is one of the most popular golfers on the planet, but he’s also the most recent LIV major winner. DeChambeau won the 2024 U.S. Open for his second U.S. Open title, and he finished runner-up to Xander Schauffele at last year’s PGA Championship.
Brooks Koepka: Koepka didn’t have a good showing at the Masters, but he’s a three-time PGA Championship winner. With his most recent PGA win in 2023, he became the first LIV Golf pro to win a major since the league was founded.
Joaquin Niemann: With three wins in seven LIV events, Niemann has been by far the best player on the upstart circuit this year. Niemann’s talents have never translated well to majors, but he’s bound to turn it on in one sometime soon.
Jon Rahm: Rahm is unquestionably one of the best and most accomplished LIV players. With two recent major titles on his resume, the Spaniard is among the betting favorites at this week’s PGA Championship.
Phil Mickelson: The most decorated golfer in LIV Golf’s ranks, Mickelson has two PGA victories among his six-career major victories. Just four years ago, he shocked the world with a win at the 2021 PGA Championship. Mickelson is playing better than he has in years heading into Quail Hollow.
Cameron Smith: The 2022 Open Championship winner, Smith was one of LIV Golf’s biggest guests when he joined up for the following season. But Smith has had few highlights in majors since then.
Sergio Garcia: Another one of the most accomplished LIV players, Garcia won the 2017 Masters to finally become a major champion. His first few years on LIV weren’t great, but Garcia has found something of late. He captured his first LIV title at the 2025 LIV Golf Hong Kong event.
Tyrrell Hatton: Though Hatton has never won a major, he’s one of a small number of LIV Golf pros in the middle of their prime. And he’s had many close calls at majors before.
Dustin Johnson: A two-time major winner, Johnson will always be a star, no matter what his game looks like. But Johnson has struggled mightily since leaving the PGA Tour.
Tom McKibbin: McKibbin earned his PGA Tour card through success on the DP World Tour, but the young phenom from Northern Ireland chose to join LIV Golf instead for 2025. McKibbin earned a special invitation into this year’s PGA Championship field.
Patrick Reed: Reed doesn’t appear to be the player he once was when he won the 2018 Masters. But he’s always a threat at the majors, as evidenced by his performance at the 2025 Masters. Reed finished third, which moved him up in the Official World Golf Ranking and cemented his spot at the PGA Championship.
Martin Kaymer: Kaymer won the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits for his first of two major victories.
Richard Bland
Dean Burmester
John Catlin
David Puig
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