LIV Golf is dead. The hour of death for the rebel league came last week in a bankruptcy hearing, when LIV’s lawyers informed the court that they are beginning to reduce towards liquidation and that LIV Golf 2.0 was not going ahead as they hope.
While the old league supported by Saudi Arabia will soon fade into golf historythe remains of it are all over the tour that he tried to “destroy”.
“They’ve taken the players, they’ve taken sponsors, they’ve turned professional golf into an arms race,” Rory McIlroy said last week in Abu Dhabi about LIV’s threat to the DP World Tour. “They were going around Augusta saying they wanted to destroy the European Tour.”
That goal failedand now the former standard bearers of LIV populate their former target. At this week’s DP World Championship, eight former LIV golfers will challenge you. Two of them (Eugenio Chacarra and Bernd Wiesberger) left LIV while it was still burning with money. Patrick Reed abandoned ship in January in an attempt to earn his PGA Tour card through the European circuit, which he did quite easily. Others, including Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, recently said goodbye to LIV as it entered bankruptcy and tried to influence them to buy into LIV 2.0.
This week in Dubai, three of LIV’s previous trophies have the chance to claim the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai title. Chacarra, what? he might be the biggest winner of golf’s civil warhe has won three times this year and enters the final event at the top of the standings. Reed, who was among the initial wave of defections, has won twice and is third behind Chacarra and Rory McIlroy. Then there’s Rahm, who won last week in his first post-LIV start to jump the rankings, giving him the opportunity to win this week and take the first prize.
LIV’s tentacles will be all over the DP World Tour next year as players who left LIV use it to make their way back to the PGA Tour, which has It is not yet decided on the way back for deserters. McIlroy believes that LIV’s top players fighting for a handful of tickets to the PGA Tour Champions Series will be a huge benefit to the European circuit.
“It would be an amazing thing for this tour if all those guys were channeled through the DP World Tour and were made to qualify like that,” McIlroy told reporters last week in Abu Dhabi. “I think this is the right scenario and the right decision and it also makes this tour incredibly strong.
“It’s only going to be in the Championship Series. It’s only going to be a handful of cards, so it’s going to be very, very competitive.”
Reed and Chacarra will go on the PGA Tour next year, but both said they plan to play on the DP World Tour as well. Rahm, Hatton, David Puig, Adrian Meronk, Laurie Canter, Victor Perez, Tom McKibbin and Thomas Detry have DP World Tour status for next season. Sergio Garcia has announced his plans to return to the DP World Tour after his LIV exit and can take membership through the Legends career money exemption. Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Paul Casey, Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace can also join that category if they wish. Dustin Johnson and Joaquin Niemann could accept tournament invites under a new policy that will grant spots to top players left in limbo after LIV’s collapse.
“Until I get clarity on (my PGA Tour status), my plan would be to spend the year on the DP World Tour, and I’m looking forward to it,” Rahm said last week in Abu Dhabi. “Currently looking at the calendar to see how I can organize to play the events I want to play. You know, maybe have the opportunity to have a little bit of a different year than what I have in the past.”
Three former LIV players earned their DP World Tour 2027 cards on Wednesday via DP World Tour Q School. Josele Ballester was co-medalist, while Byeong Hun-An and John Catlin also finished in the top 15.
Then there’s the question of Bryson DeChambeau.
The greatest champion of LIV released a statement on Sunday about the end of the league and said that he will approach what comes next with “humility”. The DP World Tour can offer membership to DeChambeau by virtue of his 2024 US Open win, but he has to commit next week. McIlroy admitted that he is not a “fan” of DeChambeau, but he knows about him in the fields. it would be good for the health of the DP World Tour.
“I think a name like Bryson DeChambeau and everything that comes with it, good and bad, brings eyes, which is a good thing for tournaments,” McIlroy said on Tuesday in Dubai. “And honestly, look, I’m certainly not in his shoes, nor would I ever want to be, but it doesn’t seem like he has many options. You know, if he wants to play competitive golf, it doesn’t seem like he has many options.”
LIV Golf is dead. But what remains is already taken by the DP World Tour. This will be evident this week in Dubai, where three underdogs have a legitimate chance to win the season tour crown. It will be even more apparent next season, when the typically sleepy DP World Tour fields are bursting with past major champions and former LIV stars who will at least temporarily call the European circuit home.
Maybe LIV Golf 2.0 isn’t dead after all. It just arrived at the DP World Tour (team franchises and logos sold separately).