Players from the failed upstart are planning to return to the mainstream on the European Tour. Not everybody is eager to welcome them back.
By Andrew Beaton
When LIV Golf was still fighting for its life in bankruptcy court, the golf establishment that it had spent years attacking turned the screws.
As LIV scrambled to enlist the golfers it would need to remain viable, the European Tour issued an ultimatum. It would no longer allow LIV players to bounce back and forth between the circuits, and they had to choose a side. One by one, they said their time with LIV was done.
Now, with LIV planning to wind down and liquidate, the golfers who played there have little choice but to return to the very outfit that dealt that crucial blow. Europe's DP World Tour is set to see an influx of talent -- and it's fraught with tension.
Some golfers have bemoaned the return of exiles from LIV, which six-time major champion Rory McIlroy recently said was out to "destroy the European Tour." At stake are both spots in tournaments and the coveted PGA Tour cards that go to the top finishers. But for the DP World Tour, which has struggled for attention and showed signs of financial strain, it represents a rare opportunity to add some of the game's A-listers.
"A name like Bryson DeChambeau and everything he brings with him, good and bad, he brings eyeballs," McIlroy said. "If he wants to play competitive golf, it doesn't seem like he's got many options."
That's because the PGA Tour has no plan to open its doors to the players, like DeChambeau, who are in post-LIV limbo. In January, the Tour offered recent major champions an opportunity to return as long as they accepted certain financial penalties, and Brooks Koepka was the only one who accepted. With LIV finished, the Tour is unlikely to extend that same offer, and if it does create any sort of on-ramp the penalties would be much more onerous, a person familiar with the matter said.
Instead, they'll likely have to earn their way back across the Atlantic, a path already charted by one former LIV player. Patrick Reed, the 2018 Masters winner, quit LIV earlier this year and spent the season in Europe. And heading into this weekend's DP World Tour Championship, Reed has played well enough that next year he'll be back where he really wants to be.
"You just hope that they are able to come out and do what I did: Come out and play solid golf and come out on the PGA Tour," Reed said of his ex-LIV colleagues.
There was a time when many of the game's top players called the European Tour their home, but that has faded away. These days, players can earn far more money playing on the PGA Tour and even players who hail from Europe compete predominantly in the States.
Currently, one of the ways onto the PGA Tour is by finishing in the top-10 of the European Tour's season-long standings. That's also set to change, just as the LIV players are flooding in. The financial partnership between the two tours is set to expire at the end of next year, and in 2028 the PGA Tour is overhauling its competitive model in a way that is expected to yield fewer spots for European Tour golfers in the top-tier events.
For some European Tour players, it's one more indignity.
"To give playing opportunities to LIV golfers, those very people who proudly represented an entity that put your own business in jeopardy, ahead of folks like myself.represents a betrayal," English golfer Eddie Pepperell recently wrote on Substack.
Some of LIV's castoffs, such as two-time major champion Jon Rahm, never gave up their European Tour memberships and can continue to play there. Just last week Rahm won the first of its two playoff events. Others such as Sergio Garcia are eligible because of their career earnings.
Then there are those with no previous status who may receive special invitations -- taking spots that could have gone to other players -- if leadership believes they can add value to tournaments.
One anomaly is DeChambeau, who has rarely played in Europe but is eligible to join next year based on his 2024 U.S. Open victory. Whether he accepts that remains to be seen, but as one of the LIV players who sued the PGA Tour after leaving, he seems to understand that he has fences to mend.
"Arnold Palmer said no player is bigger than the game, and I want to acknowledge that, along the way, I've said some things that didn't help," DeChambeau said in a recent statement. "Whatever comes next, I'll approach it with humility and respect for the people who carried this game long before me."