A source told ESPN on Wednesday that several representatives of LIV golf players have begun reaching out to the PGA Tour to explore what a path to a return would look like.
The potential withdrawal of such players comes amid reports in recent weeks that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund will stop funding LIV after the 2026 season, putting the future of that tour at risk.
Earlier Wednesday, wall street journal It is reported that LIV is expected to tell its players by Thursday that PIF funding will stop at the end of the season. Wire It was reported that LIV team captains have already been informed.
Other than this, Sports Business Journal On Wednesday night news broke that PIF governor Yasser al-Rumayyan, who was behind the creation of LIV, was resigning as president of the Tour. SBJ reported that LIV was planning on Thursday to announce its strategy for moving forward without its primary financial backer, including a new board and plans to seek outside financial partners.
With the future of LIV uncertain, the PGA Tour is now in a position where it can choose how it wants to potentially bring players back and even prioritize which players it wants back.
In January, PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp introduced a “Returning Member Program” – a performance-based pathway for players who were off the tour for at least two years and who won the Players Championship or any of the four major championships from 2022 to 2025. The players had until February 2 to decide whether they wanted to come back or not. brooks koepka This was accepted with many penalties included; Other eligible players– Bryson DeChambeau, john rahm And cameron smith – Chose not to participate.
With the Returning Member Program ending, the PGA Tour is exploring plans for specific players to potentially return under new and possibly more stringent restrictions.
“We’re interested in keeping the best players who can help our tour,” Rolapp told The Wall Street Journal in its story published Wednesday. “Not every player can do that.”
patrick reedJoined LIV in June 2022, did not renew his contract with the tour and is instead serving a one-year ban. He is eligible to return to the PGA Tour on August 25. henrik stenson And Pat Perez also opted to leave LIV and were allowed to return under the same year-long restrictions from their previous LIV program. Both are now playing on the PGA Tour Champions over the age of 50.
Factors that may influence how the PGA Tour welcomes back specific players may include past performance, whether or not a player has resigned his membership (for example, Reed did), whether he played on the tour or had any standing and whether he was involved in an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. Rolapp told The Wall Street Journal that many people on the tour had “scars” in their minds about the players who were part of that lawsuit and that he hoped that factor would be accounted for “in some shape or form.”
Of the 11 players who were part of that suit, DeChambeau stands out.
Two-time U.S. Open champion DeChambeau and two-time major winner Rahm are the players who will likely bring the most value when they return on and off the PGA Tour. DeChambeau is in the final year of his LIV contract, which is reportedly worth more than $100 million; Rahm signed a deal through 2023 worth more than $300 million.
DeChambeau said in an interview flushing it social media “As long as LIV is here, I’ll find some way to make sense of it,” he said earlier this month.
LIV’s next scheduled event is May 7-10 at Trump National Golf Club in Washington, DC. Earlier this week, LIV announced that the tournament, scheduled for late June in New Orleans, would be postponed, with officials considering a possible fall date instead.
However, the way forward is unclear as the future of LIV remains uncertain with the end of PIF’s participation.
Al-Rumayyan, now a former board chairman, has long wanted a seat at the table with the sport’s leadership. He signed a framework agreement with the PGA Tour and European Tour in 2023 and was set to join the PGA Tour Enterprises board if it was approved.
Apart from ending the antitrust lawsuits, the deal never came to fruition. PGA Tour Enterprises instead received a minority investment from a consortium of North American sports owners.
Scott O’Neill, who replaced greg norman As CEO of LIV Golf last year, he told employees in an email on April 15 that the 2026 season would “continue exactly as planned, uninterrupted and with full vigor.” But he later admitted during LIV’s Mexico City event that Saudi funding was good through the 2026 season, and that he would “work like crazy” to create a solid business plan, raising questions about how it will retain its top players.
“The reality is you get funded during the season and then you work like crazy to build a business and create a business plan to keep us going,” O’Neill said. “But it’s no different than any other private equity-funded business in the history of man.”
Golf Digest first reported the arrival of representatives of LIV players to the PGA Tour.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
