LIV Golfers Are Quietly Planning Their Next Moves, Per Report

According to a report, several unnamed LIV Golf members have reached out to another tour to ask about their eligibility status.

LIV Golf players have reportedly explored playing on the DP World Tour, with the league's future uncertain. | Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters via Imagn Images

Several LIV golfers are planning their next move if the league loses funding, or possibly ceases to exist.

According to Today’s Golfer, numerous unnamed LIV Golf members have asked the DP World Tour about the opportunity to play on the European circuit and their eligibility status, as LIV’s future remains uncertain. 

The DP World Tour, however, is still letting things play out. 

“We’re reading the headlines and observing,” DPWT chief executive Guy Kinnings told Today’s Golfer. “We’ve got members and dual members [of the DPWT and LIV] and we listen to them. Those kind of headlines that we’ve seen in the last few weeks have got to be concerning for them. But all we do is control what we can control, make sure our product is as good as it can be. I don’t think it can be easy with all of that sort of going on. 

“But at the moment, our focus is just on us doing what we can do. We listen to players, listen to their representatives all the time and go from there.”

Recent reports indicate that LIV Golf could lose funding from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund after this season. Roughy $5 billion has been invested in the league since its inception in 2022. 

Two weeks ago at LIV Golf Mexico City, LIV CEO Scott O’Neil said in an interview with TNT Sports, “The reality is you’re funded through the season and then you work like crazy to create a business and a business plan to keep us going. But that’s not different than any other private equity business in the history of mankind.” However, that part of the interview has been cut from TNT’s platforms. 

LIV Golf was thrown another wrench this week, with reports that LIV’s New Orleans event in June is being rescheduled until the league restructures financially. 

Eight LIV players (though not Jon Rahm) made a deal with the DP World Tour that allows them to play on the European circuit this year without releases or fines.

As for the PGA Tour, Brooks Koepka was brought back from LIV Golf under the Returning Member Program. However, that offer was only extended to Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Cam Smith and expired in February. But if LIV Golf’s future is indeed in the danger that has been reported, the PGA Tour may re-seek options to reinstate some players who defected to the Saudi-backed circuit. 

"We’ll react when we have an opportunity to react, but right now, we’re focused on making the PGA Tour better,” PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp told Pat McAfee last week. "But listen, I’ve said it publicly and I’ll say it again: I’m interested in whatever makes the PGA Tour better. That's what my job is. That’s what I'm interested in doing. That has no limit. That's how I’ll focus on it."

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