PGA Tour lays out decision-making process on LIV Golf players amid bankruptcy proceedings
PGA Tour lays out decision-making process on LIV Golf players amid bankruptcy proceedings
Kylee HansenSun, November 8, 2026 at 12:11 AM UTC
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The PGA Tour announced previously they would not reopen the Returning Member Program -Credit:Getty Images (Getty Images)
A public decision from the PGA Tour regarding a return pathway for LIV Golf players is not anticipated until at least January.
January is when LIV Golf's bankruptcy proceedings are set to conclude, and a handful of PGA Tour stars have given their opinions regarding the return process for former LIV Golfers.
Reports from The Athletic indicate that a source directly familiar with the PGA Tour’s leadership thinking emphasized that the tour will prioritize its long-term strategy over any quick "sugar-high" when deciding these matters.
Questions have risen to the surface, and LIV Golf has started liquidation after BC Partners was not satisfied with player commitments for the 2027 season and LIV Golf 2.0.
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After committing $5 billion to LIV, the Saudi Public Investment Fund ended its support in April, forcing the league to operate independently. BC Partners Credit pledged $300 million to back the circuit's prospective "2.0" launch, but the firm ultimately withdrew its financing when a sufficient number of prominent players failed to sign on within the required timeframe.
Two-time major winner Jon Rahm was one of the largest names on the circuit and initially was given a route back to the PGA Tour through the Returning Member Program in January 2026.
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The Returning Member Program was open for Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith, and Brooks Koepka. Koepka was the only player to utilize the pathway, and his choice came with severe financial penalties.
LIV Golf is in the formal liquidation process -Credit:Getty Images
"There are 225 with Tour cards, and if you sat down and interviewed all of them, you're going to get probably three or four boxes of how guys feel. Some don't care. Some guys are really ticked off. Some guys want them to have a huge fine. Some guys would let them back tomorrow," Xander Schauffele said at the BayCurrent Classic in Yokohama.
Rahm shut the door on the option, and PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp initially said that the Returning Member Program would not re-open.
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“The tour is a membership organization,” Rolapp said earlier this year. “It has rules. Those rules exist for lots of reasons. For fair, competitive reasons. … Rules only matter if they are enforced. So accountability and discipline are essential to any organization, and certainly for the integrity of the tour and for the game, especially in a game that prides itself on rules and integrity.”
Speaking in Abu Dhabi, Adam Scott expressed his view that former players must work their way back into whichever circuit they wish to join, whether that be the PGA Tour or the DP World Tour.
“I think the fairest thing is that they all re-establish themselves in the system that they want to go to,” Scott told Today’s Golfer. “They left and gave up those privileges. So, you know, I think they should re-qualify themselves.”
Source: “AOL Money”
