The end of LIV Golf is nigh.
Multiple media reports say the Saudis have decided to cut their eye-watering losses and withdraw funding for the LIV Golf Tour. It will almost certainly sound the death knell of the rebel league, four years after it rocked the sport with its launch under Australian golfing great, Greg Norman, in 2022.
The season is reportedly set to play out – the last LIV Golf event is scheduled for late August – but after that, the likelihood of anyone teeing up in another rebel tournament appears very slim.
LIV officials have recently indicated they would attempt to source other investors and keep going, but given the huge overheads and a history of massive losses, experts believe that’s a longer shot than a Bryson DeChambeau one-wood. The same DeChambeau who was, until recently, seeking A$750m a year to re-sign with LIV Golf.
And the same LIV Golf that has burned through $7 billion so far, reported a A$829m loss in 2024 and is still reportedly losing $140m a month.
So take it as read LIV players and their agents will be scrambling to sort their futures on different tours, and not all will have the same exit ramps. That could even be seen in the paths of the four Australians in LIV: Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman, Lucas Herbert and Elvis Smylie.
THE PGA TOUR FAST PASS
Smith has been struggling for form but, as a recent major winner, he may still get the chance for an expedited return to the PGA Tour.
Earlier this year, the PGA created a “Returning Member Program” that opened a temporary door for a handful of elite LIV stars who had won majors or the Players Championship between 2022 and 2025 to come back: DeChambeau, Smith, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka.
To placate the PGA Tour stars like Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth, who didn’t take the early offers of over $100m to join LIV, the return came with hefty financial penalties: a $5m donation to charity, ineligibility for the multibillion-dollar PGA Tour player equity program for five years, and no entry into the $20m-plus, limited field Signature Tour events, unless earned via rankings.
The PGA Tour predicted the deal could amount to the forfeiture of up to A$120m, but it would also allow the stars to come back – and not after serving a year’s ban, like all the other defectors.
Only Koepka took the deal. Smith said “I’ve made my bed” and turned it down, along with Rahm and DeChambeau.
It is unclear if PGA Tour boss Brian Rolapp will revive the program but he admitted recently he would consider it if LIV collapsed. Experts believe he will, given more big names will provide a needed boost to TV ratings.
Smith – who resigned his US PGA Tour membership in 2022 – could potentially elect to not rejoin the PGA Tour and elect to play a limited calendar of Australian events and the majors, but most of the exemptions he earned by winning the Open in 2022 are coming to an end in 2027.
Smith is an automatic starter for the Open until 2032, but after years of not earning world rankings points in LIV – and missing cuts in majors – Smith will soon have to re-earn entry in majors by being in the world’s top 50, or via victory in events with major entries attached, like the Australian Open.
THE DP WORLD TOUR PATH
Mostly, LIV golfers seeking to return to the US PGA Tour will have to serve a year’s ban from their last LIV tournament – and then earn their tour card back.
That can be done via the regular routes of the Qualifying School or a full year on the second-tier Korn Ferry Tour.
But many – including elite players who may not agree to the returning program – may look to play their way back onto their PGA Tour via the European Tour, badged as the DP World Tour, as Patrick Reed is doing.
Unlike the US PGA, the DP didn’t ban its members who joined LIV, or make them serve a year’s suspension. And anyone who finishes in the top 10 on the DPWT for the season automatically wins a full US PGA Tour card next year.
Reed, whose year suspension on the US PGA Tour expires in August, is in the top 10 and will likely earn a PGA Tour card.
That route also comes with a financial cost, however. Rather than ban players, the DPWT issued fines to LIV defectors, almost A$200,000 every time they played a “conflicting event” with a DPWT tournament.
To return to the DPWT, players must settle up on all their accrued fines and agree to play in six tournaments – two of which to be determined by the tour. Several LIV stars, including Tyrrell Hatton, have paid up.
But Rahm appealed the fines in 2024 – which kept him sweet for the Ryder Cup – and while he has since withdrawn the appeal, he reportedly faces fines of A$4.2 million. The Spanish golfer says the fines are “extortion” given many of them arose from events he would have never played, even if LIV Golf didn’t exist.
Smith’s involvement with the DPWT is mostly limited to playing in co-sanctioned Australian events, and it is unclear whether Smith would face an even bigger fine than Rahm if he attempted to play on the DPWT. Leishman would foreseeably be in the same boat, as an original LIV Golf defector.
Smylie, who claimed a LIV Golf win in Riyadh in February in his professional debut, is seen as a rising star and has been mentioned by several golf outlets as a player who would enhance the PGA Tour.
Facing hefty financial penalties, many of the original players on the LIV Golf circuit could struggle to resurrect their careers.
Iain Payten is a senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.