Ryder Cup 2023: Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm lead Team Europe's most recent qualification standings

The Ryder Cup is becoming increasingly important as the year turns, and preparations are well under way. When the Americans visit Rome in September, Team Europe will have the opportunity to hoist the trophy. It has been 30 years since the United States last invaded Europe and triumphed, so it is nice to be back in familiar surroundings. Ryder Cup 2023 fans can buy Ryder Cup Tickets from our website.

However, they will bet on themselves to succeed in Italy after their record-breaking 19-9 victory at Whistling Straits in 2021, which is still fairly recent in memory. Although it is uncertain, it appears unlikely that those connected with LIV Golf will be permitted to compete in Rome.

As a result, players like Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, and Dustin Johnson may have played their final Ryder Cup matches. The event has already been hampered by the Saudi-backed breakaway circuit, which also resulted in the initial European captain Henrik Stenson losing his position after joining the tour.

jon rahm with wife kelley cahill

Luke Donald, his replacement, has won the Ryder Cup with each of the four teams on which he has played. After the new qualification procedure was approved, the Englishman will have six captain's picks later this year, which is double the number Padraig Harrington had in Wisconsin.

This year, Team Europe qualification will continue through September 3 after starting at the BMW PGA Championship in September. The top three players on the World Points List who have not already qualified through the European standings, as well as the top three players on the European Points List, will earn their spots on the team.

Naturally, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm are in the lead right now. Shane Lowry and Viktor Hovland are two other players who are almost certain to join them in Rome later this year. Here is how Team Europe is currently being considered for qualification.

List of European Points (Players in bold currently qualifying)

Position	Player	Points
1	Jon Rahm	1850.0
2	Rory McIlroy	1021.5
3	Shane Lowry	898.0
4	Tommy Fleetwood	886.09
5	Adrian Otaegui	865.9
6	Alex Noren	824.5
7	Rasmus Hojgaard	779.17
8	Jordan Smith	706.83
9	Tyrrell Hatton	688.99
10	Robert MacIntyre	688.14

World Points List

(Players in bold currently qualifying)

Position	Player	Points
1	Rory McIlroy	87.87
2	Jon Rahm	71.99
3	Viktor Hovland	53.5
4	Shane Lowry	44.02
5	Alex Noren	41.83
6	Adrian Otaegui	39.55
7	Tommy Fleetwood	37.56
8	Robert MacIntyre	35.28
9	Thomas Detry	34.62
10	Seamus Power	34.57

Standings correct as of January 2.

Ryder Cup 2023: In Rome, Jon Rahm calls on organisations to make a unified decision regarding LIV golfers

A major question looming over golf at the moment is whether LIV players will be included in the competition. The group that Jon Rahm will play with on the European side of the biennial competition in Rome is still up in the air, but he will almost certainly be there. Ryder Cup fans can buy Ryder Cup 2023 Tickets from our website.

Jon Rahm lead Team Europe's most recent qualification standings

It's not just the Europeans, either; the American team will need to make some decisions regarding the competition in September, particularly with regard to LIV Golf participants attending the events. At the Tournament of Champions, where he will begin his 2023 campaign, Rahm said on Tuesday,

"There's some people that are going to have to make some tough choices, right?"

"That is a little out of my reach. I anticipate that the PGA of America and European Tour will decide jointly. The idea of one team allowing LIV players and the other not seems foolish to me."

In addition, I believe it will provide a chance for many outstanding young players to emerge and have the opportunity in Europe, even if they decide not to on that side. All of them will simply have an opportunity as a result.

Last year's Ryder Cup featured a younger American team, and they performed admirably. So I'm hoping that these younger players who have grown up watching the Ryder Cup and seeing their heroes perform, let's say, it gives the team a little bit of energy and we go into the match with the intention of winning.

Of course, decisions are common since the captains of both teams must make selections for the games (both teams will have six wild card selections this year). However, before the captains make their selections, the organisations that oversee this competition—PGA of America on the American side and European Tour on the European side—have some additional philosophical decisions to make.

In particular, should LIV Golf players be allowed to compete in the Ryder Cup, as Rahm pointed out?

A number of the best golfers in the world joined the Saudi-backed startup league in 2022 after leaving the PGA Tour and European Tour, which both tried to ban those players from competing. While a court decided that European Tour players could temporarily compete in European Tour events, the PGA Tour was successful in doing so. A court is anticipated to render a decision in February.

What this should imply for players outside of these two leagues has been a topic of much discussion. For instance, The Masters recently declared that any LIV player who qualified for its 2023 event would be allowed to participate in that competition. Although this seems unimportant, it was treated as major news because of how chaotic the previous year was.

The PGA Tour, which is a totally distinct entity from the PGA of America, forbade all golfers from competing in the Presidents Cup, which is organised by it on both the domestic and international levels, in September. It's interesting to note that international captain Trevor Immelman questioned why Louis Oosthuizen couldn't participate given that he had resigned from the PGA Tour and that an international Presidents Cup player is not required to be a member of the PGA Tour in order to compete in the Presidents Cup.

Oosthuizen had broken PGA Tour rules while still a member, it was told to him. Which team will be affected more by all of this is a contentious question. Only one LIV player — Paul Casey — is among the top 12 players on the European side, per Data Golf, though Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood are nearly there.

Rory Mcilroy lead Team Europe's most recent qualification standings

The only American in the top 12 is Dustin Johnson, and none of the others are in the top 20. (Talor Gooch is 25th). Compared to the PGA of America, the European Tour is in a worse situation, so the final choice will probably be determined by what the European side wants.

An about-face regarding the Ryder Cup, which it also manages, after attempting to prevent players from competing on its tour, would seem disingenuous. Again, this probably won't have a big impact on how the team is put together, but Rahm wants Garcia to play, and Rahm has a lot of influence on the European side.

Whatever happens, this will be one of the more significant plots in 2023. When it comes to LIV golfers, all of our attention has been on what the major championships will decide, but the Ryder Cup (and both organisations that run it) are also in that situation.

Furthermore, while Ryder Cup decisions could (could!) have a significant impact on the outcome of this year's competition, major choices will only have a minor impact on the fields that compete in them. Eticketing.co is the best website to buy Golf and Ryder Cup Tickets.