Ryder Cup qualification race heats up as LIV Golf star makes bold move

The contention to beryllium portion of Luke Donald's squad for the 2025 Ryder Cup astatine Bethpage Black is heating up, with LIV Golf prima Tyrrell Hatton staking his assertion for automatic qualification

LIV Golf prima Tyrrell Hatton has made a flying commencement successful his unlikely bid for automatic Ryder Cup selection.

The Englishman, 32, put his Ryder Cup aboriginal successful jeopardy earlier this twelvemonth erstwhile helium moved to the unsanctioned breakaway circuit successful a woody worthy successful the portion of £50million. European players indispensable beryllium progressive members of the DP World Tour if they privation to beryllium part of Luke Donald's squad astatine Bethpage Black.

But Hatton's determination to articulation LIV saw him rack up suspensions and fines that could person prevented him from gathering eligibility requirements. Players indispensable play a minimum of 4 qualifying events each twelvemonth to clasp their DP World Tour membership.

Hatton was capable to assistance his suspension by appealing his punishments, putting the proceedings connected hold, and allowing him to meet the four-tournament threshold to support his DP World Tour status. His Legion XIII teammate Jon Rahm did the same, with some men gathering the requirements to marque them disposable arsenic imaginable captain's picks for Donald adjacent year.

Hatton, though, wants to spell a measurement further, attempting to unafraid his spot connected the 12-man squad by securing 1 of the six automatic qualification spots. It volition beryllium a hard situation for the High Wycombe autochthonal owed to his LIV commitments, which volition instrumentality up the immense bulk of his clip astatine the tallness of adjacent play and importantly inhibit his quality to accrue Ryder Cup qualification points.

But helium has made a flying commencement since the qualification model opened with the British Masters successful September. Hatton won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship successful October and finished 2nd successful the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship past week.

He followed it up with a sixth-place decorativeness successful the DP World Tour Championship successful Dubai connected Sunday, meaning helium has earned a handsome haul of points, putting him 3rd successful the qualification race.

Rory McIlroy leads the mode aft his triumph astatine the Earth Course connected Sunday, which capped a sixth Race To Dubai triumph. Rasmus Hojgaard is 2nd aft a superb play for the Dane, who is hoping to emulate duplicate member Nicolai – a subordinate of the victorious 2023 Ryder Cup team.

The remainder of the apical 10 is made up of comparative unknowns who person fixed themselves a accidental of making a Ryder Cup breakthrough. Whether they tin enactment the people remains to beryllium seen.

It remains aboriginal successful the process, but the likes of Shane Lowry, Tommy Fleetwood, Robert MacIntyre, Justin Rose and Matt Fitzpatrick volition request to marque a beardown commencement to the 2025 play to boost their chances of finishing successful the apical six and qualifying for the squad automatically. Here is however the standings look arsenic the 2024 play comes to a close...

1. Rory McIlroy - 792.07
2. Rasmus Hojgaard - 706.53
3. Tyrrell Hatton - 587.84
4. Matt Wallace - 505.42
5. Paul Waring - 4155.23
6. Niklas Norgaard - 414.83
7. Jorge Campillo - 322.32
8. Julien Guerrier - 318.1
9. Antione Rozner - 316.48
10. Thorbjorn Olesen - 315.25
11. Dan Bradbury - 312.77
12. Angel Hidalgo - 304.19
13. Matteo Manassero - 276.96
14. Tommy Fleetwood - 268.73
15. Jordan Smith - 264.16
16. Jon Rahm - 257.8
17. Shane Lowry - 229.73
18. Alfredo Garcia-Heredia - 210.55
19. Francesco Laporta - 191.3
20. Dan Brown - 189.56