DP WORLD TOUR BOSS SAYS LIV PLAYERS MUST ‘MAKE A CHOICE’
LIV Golf players will need to make a choice according to DP World Tour boss Guy Kinnings (Photo: LIV Golf)
The landscape of top tier professional golf remains ever more uncertain after the boss of the DP World Tour told the BBC that any LIV Golf members wishing to compete on their tour in 2027 “need to make a choice”.
LIV 2.0 is in a transitional phase with the future of the tour still uncertain despite a reported $300million agreement with BC Partners. High profile names such as Jon Rahm, Brooks Keopka and Patrick Reed have already wheeled out of LIV Golf, while veterans such as Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter teed it up in Spain and Scotland in recent days on the DP World Tour. Bryson DeChambeau has also enquired about DP World Tour membership.
Any hopes of player synergy between the two tours appear to be dead in the water after Guy Kinnings, DP World Tour CEO, told the BBC, “Players need to make a choice".
"We have rules and regulations which are there to protect our tour and which our members must all abide by. Players who are not willing to comply with our rules and regulations should not be seeking to join our tour."
Previously, conditional releases were granted to allow players like Rahm and Tyrell Hatton to play on both the DP World Tour and LIV. This flexibility will no longer be an option. Players like Northern Ireland’s Tom McKibbin paid DP World Tour fines which afforded them the opportunity to play on tour.
Any player that commits to LIV 2.0 will no longer be allowed to play on the DP World Tour from 2027.
LIV Golf filed for bankruptcy in September in a bid to restructure after the multi-billion dollar withdrawal of funding from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). Players have a deadline of November 16 to sign up to the DP World Tour for the 2027 season, while LIV 2.0 is looking for players to sign up by October 25.
Players with ambitions of making Luke Donald’s European Ryder Cup at Adare Manor in Limerick next September must be members of the DP World Tour to be eligible.