The world of professional golf was rocked Thursday by a pair of connected announcements that cast deep uncertainty over the future of the breakaway LIV Golf league, leaving PGA Tour-based players adopting a cautious, watch-and-wait approach as speculation swirls about a potential wave of returning defectors.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the deep-pocketed backer that launched LIV Golf in 2021 and lured top talent with blockbuster contracts, confirmed it will withdraw all financial support for the circuit following the 2026 season. The confirmation came just hours after LIV Golf itself released a statement acknowledging it was actively pursuing new long-term financial partners to sustain its operations.
The dual disclosures immediately sparked widespread industry speculation that dozens of golfers who abandoned the PGA Tour to join the rival league — and who lost their PGA membership in a bitter, years-long split that spawned multiple high-profile lawsuits and fractured the global golf community — could soon rush to secure a path back to the sport’s top traditional tour.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the PGA Tour’s Cadillac Championship at Trump National Doral in Miami, 2023 British Open champion Brian Harman, a longstanding PGA Tour loyalist, shared his perspective on the unfolding situation. The 39-year-old American said he believes a pathway for readmission will eventually open for LIV golfers, but he stressed that it remains far too early to outline what terms that re-entry might include.
“I would think that the fans want everyone to be playing together and, you know, time heals all wounds,” Harman said. He added, however, that lingering hard feelings from the acrimonious legal battle remain a major barrier to reconciliation. “There is still some sentiment out here, especially with all the lawsuit stuff. That stuff’s going to be tough to get past.”
The rift between the two circuits dates back to 2022, when 11 high-profile LIV defectors — including six-time major champion Phil Mickelson — filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour, challenging the tour’s decision to suspend players who signed with the new breakaway league.
To date, one of the sport’s biggest names, five-time major winner Brooks Koepka, has already rejoined the PGA Tour under an existing readmission program that requires participating players to pay steep financial penalties. Harman made clear that he supports maintaining meaningful consequences for any other LIV golfers who seek to return in the wake of PIF’s funding withdrawal.
“I think there has to be something,” he said, adding that such penalties would help ease long-running “bad blood and resentment” among players who remained loyal to the PGA Tour. Even so, Harman pushed back on assumptions that a mass exodus from LIV is imminent, noting that the end of PIF backing does not guarantee LIV Golf will cease operations entirely.
“I’m not sure that they’re closing shop. The funding’s drying up. They could secure funding from somewhere else and keep going. They have got a lot of big name players over there, guys that move the needle,” Harman explained. “Until it’s all done, until you’ve got guys that are actually calling and trying to come back to the tour, it’s not really a problem that we’re dealing with currently.”
Three-time major winner Jordan Spieth echoed Harman’s cautious tone, saying he was relieved not to be part of the group tasked with negotiating readmission terms for returning LIV golfers. Spieth noted that the PGA Tour already extended offers of readmission to defectors several months ago, and Koepka was among those who took advantage of that opportunity.
“I know olive branches were given out, you know, a couple months ago. Brooks took ’em up on it. So I’m not sure what would now change,” Spieth said. Like Harman, he emphasized that the end of Saudi funding does not automatically mean LIV Golf will fold. “That doesn’t necessarily mean that LIV’s not going to still move on, too. I think there’s just too many unknowns for me to have a good gauge on what would happen there.”
Spieth added that the acrimony of the past four years has made the question of LIV golfer readmission an incredibly charged issue, and he has no desire to be involved in shaping its outcome. “There’s just a lot of different things that happened over the last four years. I’m kind of glad I’m not in that room.”
Former U.S. President Donald Trump, a noted golf enthusiast whose company owns multiple courses that host events for both tours, weighed in on the developments Thursday. Trump said he wants to see the sport reunited, with top PGA Tour loyalists like Masters champion Rory McIlroy competing regularly against LIV stars such as Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm.
“Now they’ll all be accepted by the tour … they’ll all be back on tour and it’ll be great,” Trump said. He also noted that LIV Golf remains active for the time being, with its next tournament scheduled to take place in two weeks at his Trump National Golf Club, located on the Potomac River in suburban Washington D.C. “I’m not sure what’s happening with LIV, but they are playing at my course in two weeks.”