PGA Tour Not Offering Another Lifeline to LIV Players Just Yet

ATLANTA — With LIV Golf’s future in limbo following the conclusion of its 2026 season, there remains no clear-cut path for any of the league’s players to potentially return to the PGA Tour.

“Rules matter,” PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said Tuesday at his pre-tournament press conference ahead of this week’s Tour Championship. And “rules only matter if they’re enforced,” Rolapp added during his address to media and tour stakeholders inside the clubhouse at East Lake Golf Club.

LIV players have been banned from the PGA Tour since the league launched in 2022, with most facing at least a one-year suspension dating back to the most recent LIV event they played in. Five-time major champion Brooks Koepka bucked that trend when he re-joined the PGA Tour in January—just five months after completing his fourth LIV season—as the first and so far only member of the PGA Tour’s Returning Member Program, which Rolapp at the time described as a “one-time, defined window” with “no promise” it would be available again.

“Currently there’s no current plans for a Returning Member Program like you saw earlier this year,” Rolapp said. Koepka was one of four LIV players eligible for that, alongside Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, and Cam Smith. DeChambeau and Smith are among the most pro-LIV players, while Rahm is widely seen as being ready to leave the league.

“I don’t know the future of LIV,” Rolapp said. “It sounds like they’re working really hard to come up with the next iteration of it. We’ve been consistent. Anyone who’s interested in coming to the PGA Tour needs to demonstrate that they are relieved of their contractual commitments or any tail obligations they might have in that legacy model. Brooks certainly did that, and until then, we weren’t really able to consider anything seriously. I would say the same thing here.”

Rahm has multiple years remaining on his LIV contract, but could come to terms on a buyout offer this fall. DeChambeau’s contract with LIV expired after the 2026 season.

Earning It on the Course

While Rolapp acknowledged that fans “want to see the best golfers competing week in and week out,” he said meritocracy will be key for shaping the PGA Tour moving forward, with or without any former LIV members. “Every player, whether they’re already here or they’re trying to be here, they’re going to earn a place based on their performance and on their success,” Rolapp said.

The PGA Tour is moving to a two-track model in 2028 with a top-tier Championship Series with $20 million-plus purse events and a second-tier Challenger Series with prize money no less than $4 million per tournament. The 2027 PGA Tour season will be key in shaping who lands on which circuit the following year. Playing on the DP World Tour in 2027 and earning potential promotion to the PGA Tour in 2028 could be a potential option for some former LIV players, if they end their affiliation with the league.