President Donald Trump has backed the reintroduction of LIV Golf players onto the PGA Tour after the league announced the Saudi Public Investment Fund would withdraw funding at the end of the 2026 season.
The PGA Tour are currently playing the Cadillac Championship at Trump National Doral in Miami, with LIV Golf scheduled to play at the Trump-owned Potomac course in two weeks’ time.
Asked whether the PGA Tour should welcome defectors from LIV back with open arms, Trump said: “Well I do. I do believe that all of the great golfers should be playing against each other. I want to see Rory [McIlroy] playing Bryson DeChambeau. I want to see big Jon Rahm playing Scottie [Scheffler]. They have great players on the LIV. But it’s almost like people want to see that. That’s why the Masters were so good, because you saw everybody together. The tour wants the best players. You can’t have the best players if they’re boycotting.”
Play began at the Cadillac Championship around the same time PIF confirmed it will end its funding for LIV Golf at the end of the 2026 season.
Former world No 1 Jordan Spieth, asked after his opening round about how LIV players might return to the PGA Tour, said there are many unknowns. “I’m not sure if it should be the same for everyone. I know olive branches were given out a couple of months ago. Brooks took them up on it. So, I’m not sure what would now change. This doesn’t necessarily mean that LIV’s not going to still move on, too. I think there’s just too many unknowns for me to have a good gauge on what would happen there. But I think, if there’s a system for Brooks and a system for Patrick Reed, does that stay the same for guys in the same category as those two coming back or does it change now? Does it change for guys who sued and dropped their membership? There’s just a lot of different things that happened over the last four years for that. I’m kind of glad I’m not in that room, and I trust the guys that are in that room to make the right decision.”
Sky Sports News’ Jamie Weir said: “I think we can say with a degree of certainty that no one is going to pump the amount of cash that PIF did into LIV. They’ve spent close to $6bn with very little return on investment at all. Nobody in their right mind is going to finance a failing business. The big question is where it leaves the players. We know for a fact that multiple players are exploring exit strategies. They’re likely to play out the remaining seven events of this LIV season and then look to cancel their contracts and try to get onto the regular tours.”
Weir added that players’ situations will vary. Some are multi-millionaires — Phil Mickelson, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood — who might decide to stop competing. “I think we can say with some certainty that we’ll never see Phil Mickelson on the PGA Tour again. As one American commentator put it yesterday ‘that bridge has been burned, decimated, destroyed.'”
He noted eight LIV players, including Tyrell Hatton, hold DP World Tour cards and could take the route Patrick Reed did, while a larger group of rank-and-file players who don’t draw big crowds will find returning tougher. For Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau, Weir said it will be “very interesting to see their pathway back. The offer that was made to them and to Brooks Koepka in January was a one-time offer.”
What LIV Golf events are left to play this season?
– LIV Golf Virginia at Trump National Golf Club, Washington D.C, USA – May 7-10
– LIV Golf Korea at Asiad Country Club, South Korea – May 28-31
– LIV Golf Andalucia at Real Club Valderrama, Spain – June 4-7
– LIV Golf United Kingdom at JCB Golf & Country Club, Great Britain – July 23-26
– LIV Golf New York at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, New Jersey, USA – August 6-9
– LIV Golf Indianapolis at The Club at Chatham Hills, USA – August 20-23
– LIV Golf Team Championship Michigan at The Cardinal at Saint John’s, USA – August 27-30
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