2 LIV phenoms get surprise PGA Championship invites

The 2025 PGA Championship is one week away, with players reporting to host course Quail Hollow in a matter of days. Now, two additional LIV Golf stars, Tom McKibbin and David Puig, will be joining the game’s best after receiving last-minute invitations to play the PGA.

PGA Championship: golf’s strongest field?

The PGA Championship is the second men’s major of the year. While it may not have the cachet of the Masters, it often features the strongest field in golf.

Typically, most of the top 100 players in the Official World Golf Ranking get invited if not otherwise qualified. In contrast, the entire Masters field is under 100 players.

But a big issue has arisen from this policy in recent years: LIV Golf. As of now, LIV Golf tournaments do not award World Ranking points. So the only chance LIV players have to move up in the ranking is by playing in majors and select Asian Tour and DP World Tour events, which offer fewer points than PGA Tour events.

Players like Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka, who have won majors since joining LIV, have been able to automatically qualify for golf’s four biggest events through the World Ranking or their performances in majors.

Others, such as Joaquin Niemann, have not had as much success with World Ranking points. Niemann, for example, has won three LIV events in seven starts this year. But he still had to rely on a special invitation to play the Masters. He also received an invitation for next week’s PGA.

McKibbin, Puig to play PGA Championship

The situation is a little different for McKibbin and Puig.

But Niemann’s torrid play in 2025 has earned him an automatic exemption into the U.S. Open, thanks to a new qualification criteria introduced this season which offers a U.S. Open spot to the player within the top three of the LIV individual standings not otherwise qualified as of May 19.

McKibbin is a 22-year-old phenom from Northern Ireland. He earned his 2025 PGA Tour card by finishing 18th in the DP World Tour’s 2024 season-long Race to Dubai. But despite warnings from Rory McIlroy, McKibbin chose to pass on his card in favor of joining LIV Golf.

McKibbin plays on Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII team. Though he was within the top 100 earlier this season, his current Official World Golf Ranking is 115th.

But given his strong play on LIV in 2025 and last year on the DP World Tour, PGA Championship organizers offered him an invite just this week, and Tuesday morning the Legion XIII X account made the news official.