Nate Tramdaks, Staff Writer

Since its 2022 inception, LIV Golf was designed to be a disruptive force on the global scale, with the intent to reshape professional golf. In nearly 4 years, it stalled on the runway. In its nascent stages, LIV was able to attract PGA stars, some of whom were past Major Champions. Guys like Bryson DeChambeau, John Rahm and Brooks Koepka (players who seemed to be entering the peak of their powers) were allured by the massive nine-figure contracts. Now, in 2026-27, those contracts are starting to expire, and players are starting to rethink their decisions. 

The PGA defectors were vilified and for good reason. They took the easy way out. They accepted money from a morally reprehensible source – The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) – bloody oil money. The PIF owns 93% of LIV. This action alone brought into question the players competitiveness, dignity and integrity. The cowardice of the defectors didn’t stop there; they had the gall to turn around and sue the PGA. Several defectors filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour after being indefinitely suspended for joining LIV, arguing that, as independent contractors, the Tour’s actions unlawfully restricted their ability to earn a living. After almost a year of litigation, the case was dismissed in June of 2023. 

For 3 years since LIV’s emergence, professional golf has been fragmented. The sports’ best players were no longer tested against each other week after week, only four times a year. The Majors have since carried extra weight due to this fact. You had real villains. In the 12 Major meetings since, LIV won 4 of the 12: Cam Smith (Open, 2022), Koepka (PGA Championship, 2023), Rahm (Masters, 2023), and DeChambeau (US Open, 2024). Among these wins, LIV saw a plethora of T10 finishes in these events.

Despite these finishes, LIV has been unable to harness a market and the future of their talent looks rather bleak. The players they had played in Majors were only there by way of past-champ exemptions; by the nature of LIV as tour, no LIV player can outright qualify for Majors. Since LIV’s tournaments are three-rounds, players cannot gain world ranking points. It goes without saying that the world rankings matter for the stars. Moreover, and most importantly, nobody watches LIV. The Sunday rounds for LIV average about 175 thousand viewers, which is tiny compared to the PGA’s 3.1 million average Sunday viewers. The Tour’s ability to sustain itself is now being heavily scrutinized, and player’s contracts are starting to expire.

At the start of the new year, multiple-time major champion Brooks Koepka announced his desire to rejoin the PGA. In response, the PGA created the “Returning Member Program.” This program was designed to allow only Koepka back immediately. The program outlines that players who won a Major or The Players Championship between 2022-2025 can return without suspension, but must pay a $5 million donation, forfeit 5 years of Tour equity, and must apply by Feb. 2nd. As previously mentioned, Koepka won the PGA in 2023. The PGA is rewarding Koepka with a slap on the wrist because, relative to other stars, Koepka seemed to acknowledge his mistake. He never repped LIV team merch/logos during Majors, was never outspoken against the PGA, and most importantly he kept his name off of the lawsuit. This past weekend, Koepka made the cut at Torrey Pines in the Farmers Insurance Open for his first PGA start in 3 years.  

Koepka’s return has started the mass departure from LIV with previous Masters champion, Patrick Reed, announcing his intention to return on January 29th. Reed does not fit the criteria for the Returning Player Program and will serve his suspension and play 1-year with the DP World Tour. Kevin Na and Henrik Stenson also announced their intentions to return and are serving suspension. The PGA is starting to prepare for DeChambeau and Rahm to return when their contracts are up at the end of 2026. 

“I’ve got a contract for this year, and we’ll go through it there and see what happens after that,” said DeCambeau during LIV media day.