Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that Finau is also not registered for The Sentry at Kapalua in early January, the event which starts the 2025 PGA Tour season. As one of the 30 players who contested the Tour Championship at East Lake back in August, Finau is eligible for the first and all of the Signature Events in 2025, but would be excluded once he puts pen to LIV-branded paper.
He could feasibly still enter The Sentry, of course, but given the tournament’s location in Hawaii, it’s unlikely that he’s not already decided whether he intends to play in it, which does suggest that he’s unsure at best if he’ll be a PGA Tour player next year.
While the Hero World Challenge doesn’t offer FedEx Cup points, it does offer world rankings points and guaranteed prize money, and Finau’s place will now be filled by Sepp Straka. Straka is a two-time PGA Tour winner and formed a strong partnership with Shane Lowry at the 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone in Rome.
Finau, should he make the move to LIV, would be unlikely to feature in the Ryder Cup at Bethpage next September as the four major championships would be the only events in which he’d earn Ryder Cup points. Even after a win and a runner-up in the majors in 2023, Brooks Koepka still needed a captain’s pick to make the team for Rome, so Finau would have to do something quite special to convince Keegan Bradley that he’s worthy of selection.
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