The PGA Tour Must Keep LIV Players Out

Lucy Vinnakota

USATSI

After Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund announced it would be pulling its funding in May, LIV Golf, the controversial golf league that offered million-dollar contracts to top PGA Tour players beginning in 2022, filed for bankruptcy this September. Despite filing for bankruptcy five months after its funding had been cut, LIV Golf found a new investor, BC Partners, who agreed to offer 300 million in exchange for equity and stock, and if LIV Golf restructured under Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Relaunching it as “LIV 2.0”, the new model has players holding a 52.5% equity stake, with new investors taking 45% and management holding 2.5%. In order for this deal to be possible, at least 50% of players with financial claims against LIV Golf must agree to participate within 35 days of the bankruptcy filing.

LIV Golf currently owes players at least 45.5 million, so as one can imagine, players are skeptical of this new deal with BC Partners. Top players who hold large unsecured financial claims, such as Jon Rahm, Bryson Dechambeau, and Cameron Smith, remain undecided as they seek further information on equity stakes, contracts, and the new BC Partners structure. 

As the uncertainty of LIV golf’s source of funding remains at large, the PGA Tour has decided to terminate the Returning Member Program, a program opened to LIV players who had been away from the PGA Tour for at least two years, and who had won the Players Championship or any of the four majors between the years 2022-2025. If players choose to return under the Returning Member Program, they receive severe penalties which include a contribution, loss of bonuses, inability to join the equity program, restrictions on events, and only being allowed to play a minimum of fifteen events each year

“No, currently there’s no current plans for [the] Returning Member Program like you saw earlier this year,” PGA Tour commissioner Brian Rolapp said at a press conference during the 2026 Tour Championship. 

With the Returning Member Program no longer in effect, this raises questions as to what prior eligible players like Jon Rahm, Bryson Dechambeau, and Cameron Smith will decide regarding their futures. Even without the program, players can still earn their way back to the PGA Tour, but this can only be achieved through performance and regulations. 

Despite it being based on performance, LIV players should not be allowed to return to the PGA Tour. When players signed their million-dollar contracts, they knew the consequences. They chose money over tradition, and although I disagree with their decisions, I understand why immediate payment was seen as more important. What I don’t understand is why players would be allowed back after voluntarily choosing to leave for LIV. This shows how the PGA Tour themselves are prioritizing money and publicity over the traditions they claim to be preserving. It is almost as if LIV 2.0 and the uncertainty surrounding it presented an opportunity for the PGA Tour. They terminated the Returning Member Program to make it more difficult for top players to return, but is it more difficult? They are the best players in the world, and although they have to compete in order to return, what are the chances that they do meet the requirements? I would say it’s pretty high. Ironic, isn’t it?