LIV Golf players are expected to return to the PGA Tour as part of a contract with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, but an agreement has yet to be completed.
A handful of PGA Tour stars decided to join LIV Golf.
According to 12-time Tour champion Steve Stricker, members of the LIV Golf setup want to return to the PGA Tour as part of a possible peace settlement between the competing circuits.
The world of professional golf has been divided since the inception of the LIV in June 2022, with the PGA Tour prohibiting any players from joining the Saudi-backed league. Last July, the Tour announced plans to collaborate with LIV backers, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF), which raised expectations that the feud would be resolved.
It is assumed that as part of the agreement between the two competitors, LIV players will be granted a path back to the American-based circuit, although a deal has yet to be inked after their initial deadline of December 31 was missed at the end of 2023.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding the potential merger, former Ryder Cup captain Stricker feels LIV players are eager to return to the PGA Tour. “I know the guys, some of them on the LIV tour want to come back and play out on the regular Tour,” he stated at last week’s Cologuard Classic.
“I know that for a fact, and so it’s kind of a wait-and-see game, especially for us out here.” After a great career on the PGA Tour, the 57-year-old Stricker has since shifted his focus to the Champions Tour, but he remains interested in the prospective arrangement with the Saudi-backed setup.
“It doesn’t impact us very much, but I’m still interested in the happenings and what’s going to happen and what’s going to come for us.” Following its creation, a slew of the PGA Tour’s greatest names joined the breakaway league, including several members of Stricker’s Ryder Cup-winning squad in 2021.
Three of his star players, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, and Bryson DeChambeau, are on the LIV roster, as is his former teammate and vice-captain Phil Mickelson, who began his move to the Saudi-backed league nearly two years ago.
Following the initial framework agreement in June 2023, Mickelson refuted Stricker’s recent statements, suggesting that none of the LIV setup’s members desired to return to their former Tour. “Not a single player on LIV wants to play PGA Tour,” he tweeted in July.
“It would necessitate a public apology and reparation by LIV players for paying millions to influence the media to trash all of us. A more appropriate discussion would be future fines for the numerous players who have recently joined LIV. Johnson, his fellow defector, backed up Mickelson’s assertions by confessing he had no plans to play any extra golf following last year’s shocking news.
“I think with this agreement, the only thing that’s going to happen is LIV is going to get even better than what it is now, which it’s already great,” he stated in June of last year at LIV Valderrama. “I’m happy exactly where I am, and I’m definitely not looking to play more golf than I’m playing now, that’s for sure.”
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