HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – For the first time in a long time, LIV Golf is the buzz of the PGA Tour – only for all the wrong reasons. Players, caddies, agents and other hangers-on are trying to make sense of the news that LIV’s sugar daddy – Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund – is rumored to be shutting off the purse strings by the end of the season.
One manager of a LIV player said he hadn’t received any indication of PIF pulling back its support. Just last week, LIV CEO Scott O’Neil was under the tree at Augusta National Golf Club doing his best to glad-hand with the likes of Official World Golf Ranking CEO Trevor Immelman and others with talk of LIV being the world tour with plenty of runway to grow the successes of Australia and South Africa to other corners.
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But one high-ranking golf official summed up the challenge facing LIV as it continued to burn billions.”It’s easy to give away free beer,” the golf official said. “The problem is how do you turn around and sell it to those same people?”
LIV Golf signage at the 2026 LIV Golf Mexico City event at Club de Golf Chapultepec in Mexico City.
On Wednesday, three-time PGA Tour major winner Jordan Spieth heard reports about LIV potentially folding in a group text string. Spieth previously served on the Tour policy board and said that they were preparing 2-3 years ago for both scenarios: LIV to be around for a long time or for them to go away. “It’s not like a total shock,” he said.
What penalties will LIV players face to return to PGA Tour?
Spieth said various ideas have been presented to the PAC in the preceding years. The situations with Brooks Koepka, who came back after paying a fine and still has to earn his way into signature events, and Patrick Reed, who is sitting out one season and attempting to earn his playing privileges back by finishing in the top 10 of the DP World Tour order of merit, provide precedent.
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“Does it become case by case?” Spieth wondered. He noted that not all penalties should be equal given that some had never been Tour members while others renounced their membership. Some tried to sue the Tour, others made a more diplomatic departure. “You can’t forget about that,” Spieth said, noting the lawsuit by 11 pros who originally alleged that the Tour used monopoly power to stifle competition and wrongfully suspended players. “I’m not petty, but it was a big deal. At the time, the Tour was a non-profit, so, you were directing suing the players or charity.”
One caddie predicted that Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith’s management team’s had to be reaching out to the Tour to see if the offer they declined before a Feb. 1 deadline could be back on the table. Let the negotiations begin.
And what should LIV players do if the writing is on the wall that the party is just about over? If you’re David Puig, a young Spaniard with a lot of game, do you cut bait and pass up winning big bucks in the remaining LIV events or take advantage of your DP Tour card and go the Reed route? He could chase the top 10 and be reinstated on the PGA Tour next May. But for Marc Leishman, Charles Howell III and other LIV players, they may be relegated to Q-School and Asian Tour events if LIV ceases to exist.
“We’ll have to figure something out because adding some of those guys will put our Tour back where it belongs with our TV contracts coming up. That would be a good position to be in,” Harris English, a member of the Player Advisory Council, said. “I like where the Tour is right now, I like what Brian Rolapp is doing in his limited time so far. I know we’ll have a lot of conflicting opinions on who comes back, how do the exemptions work but I have faith in not only Rolapp but Keith, Mav, Adam and Tiger when he gets back.”
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Will DeChambeau, Rahm and perhaps another player or two be given preferential treatment to return? “Potentially,” English said.
Spieth, for one, had another name in mind that he thought would make the Tour’s product better.
“I miss Feherty,” he said.
Bring back David Feherty? “Yeah,” he said. “For sure, of course.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: LIV Golf funding rumors effect on players returning to PGA Tour
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