No question may be more central to the ongoing PGA Tour-LIV Golf tug of war than what could happen to the players who left the PGA Tour for the new league should an agreement between the two parties be reached.
That remains a question without a clear answer.
It also prompts another question: Do the players who went to LIV want to rejoin the PGA Tour?
Some probably do. Some are happy where they are.
The answer is contingent in large part on what any agreement might look like. There is no indication LIV Golf is going away, even if the two sides should find common ground. It’s conceivable, perhaps still the likeliest outcome, that the PGA Tour and LIV Golf co-exist in the future, even if they were to reach an agreement.
LIV Golf recently acquired 28,000 square feet of office space in New York City, with room for more than 100 employees. That doesn’t sound like an organization anticipating a contraction.
It’s what happens on the golf course – and who is playing where – that remains at the core of the conflict.
The PGA Tour would be better with Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Cameron Smith, Brooks Koepka and, if he still cares enough, Dustin Johnson, but it can survive and succeed without them. It’s happening now.
Some believe players who left the PGA Tour for LIV should be punished or pay a substantial penalty for their potential return. Others are more willing to allow them back, suggesting each player made his own decision about where to play.
The subject reportedly has been divisive not just among the tour’s rank-and-file membership but also at its highest levels, including on the tour Policy Board where some players – notably Patrick Cantlay and Jordan Spieth – are said to favor a more hardline approach.
A member of the Policy Board said the characterization of Cantlay and Spieth isn’t fully accurate, suggesting they are more focused on doing what the membership wants, and that is where the divide lies.
There is also the question of eligibility. Most of the players who left the PGA Tour for LIV have no status should they want to play the tour again. Would they have to go through qualifying again? Would they be entitled to accept a limited number of sponsor exemptions into tour events? Would it work both ways, assuming LIV continues?
“Everybody made their own decision, and I have no bad blood towards the guys that left. But a path towards coming back, I think it wouldn't be a very popular decision, I think, if they just came back like nothing ever happened.”
Scottie Scheffler
Would those who left be allowed to re-establish their tour membership but without access to the equity in the new for-profit PGA Tour Enterprises being given to approximately 200 players? If players want to maximize their equity shares, wouldn’t it be prudent to enhance the tour product by bringing LIV stars back?
If there is a clear solution to the problem, it hasn’t shown itself, at least not publicly.
Once the first order of business is achieved – agreeing to an investment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund – reaching a mutually acceptable competition matrix will follow.
Earlier this year at the WM Phoenix Open, Scottie Scheffler offered his opinion.
“Everybody made their own decision, and I have no bad blood towards the guys that left. But a path towards coming back, I think it wouldn't be a very popular decision, I think, if they just came back like nothing ever happened,” Scheffler said.
That runs contrary to what Rory McIlroy, a consistently strong critic of LIV Golf, has said. McIlroy has softened his stance, not so much on LIV Golf itself but on finding a way to bring the top players together again, making the point that a divided game is in no one’s best interest.
“If people still have eligibility on this tour and they want to come back and play or you want to try and do something, let them come back,” McIlroy said. “I mean, I think it’s hard to punish people.”
Bryson DeChambeau, whose U.S. Open victory resonated beyond the strife, was instrumental in creating the divide when he joined Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and others in LIV Golf. LIV golfers initially were told they would be eligible on the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, but that was not the case.
"The only answer is for us to somehow come together in some sort of terms where it makes sense and for us to be playing all again in somewhat of the same boat," DeChambeau said in April.
Here’s a possible solution: Allow players from both tours to compete in a lucrative Saudi-based event with the game’s biggest purse, probably early in the year.
Allow LIV players to accept a limited number of PGA Tour sponsor exemptions, perhaps no more than two per season.
Make LIV members reapply for PGA Tour membership, with no access to the equity program going forward.
Find a way to incorporate LIV into the Official World Golf Ranking, thereby increasing potential access to major championships for LIV players.
Maybe some of those things happen. Maybe the path forward looks completely different.
Don’t expect any change in 2025. Beyond that, no one seems to know.
Ron Green Jr.