LIV Golf’s promise was simple: generational wealth, guaranteed contracts, and freedom from the PGA Tour’s grueling schedule. No more Monday qualifiers, no more fighting for your card, no more uncertainty. Just show up, play your eight events, and cash checks that would set up your family for life. But as the league approaches its fourth season, something curious is happening.

31 LIV players recently entered the Hong Kong Open, willing to compete “for basically nothing.” Why would players sitting on guaranteed multi-million dollar contracts suddenly scramble for spots in traditional tour events?

The answer, according to Tour Pro insiders Nick O’Hern and Mark Allen on their “Talk Birdie To Me” podcast, lies in a timeline most golf fans have overlooked. Those revolutionary four-year contracts are expiring. When they do, not everyone is getting a new deal.

This realization has sent quiet ripples through the golf world. The first wave of contracts was signed in 2022 when Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, and Patrick Reed joined. “What’ll be interesting is to see which players do not get re-signed,” Allen said. “And then what happens to them?”

LIV Golf officially launched in October 2021, holding its first event at Centurion Club in June 2022. Back then, the atmosphere was electric. The league promised a new era of franchises worth $800 million to $1 billion, each led by star captains like Koepka, Johnson, Cameron Smith, and later Jon Rahm. By 2024, though, that hype had faded. “You don’t really hear about that anymore,” O’Hern admitted.

But even the top names encounter the cliff. Phil Mickelson, for instance, reportedly signed a multi-hundred-million-dollar deal when he joined LIV in 2022. His contract is widely assumed to expire at the end of 2025.

Now, as those contracts tick toward renewal, the silence from LIV’s leadership is deafening. No announcements. No team equity updates. No clarity on 2026. The league that once dominated headlines now drifts between speculation and secrecy.

This silence isn’t limited to the boardroom. It’s showing up on tee sheets, too.

LIV Players chase majors through national opens

Suddenly, LIV players are flooding events they once ignored. The Hong Kong Open alone has drawn 31 of them. Others are turning up at the Japan Open, which recently granted Masters and Open exemptions to a winner ranked near 500th in the world. As O’Hern noted, “That’s how they’ll turn up for basically nothing.”

It’s not about the prize money. It’s about access. Without Official World Golf Ranking points, LIV golfers are finding alternate routes into the Majors. The shift marks a quiet admission.

For younger or fringe players, that pressure hits harder. Danny Lee, who joined in 2023 and earned over $25 million, doesn’t know what comes next. Charles Howell III, 47, may not get renewed. And Frederik Kjettrup, once a promising prospect out of Florida State, has struggled since joining LIV. “Those bottom 20 players… what do they do next?” O’Hern asked.

Meanwhile, the PGA Tour has fortified its base. In early 2024, it finalized a $1.5 billion partnership with the Strategic Sports Group, restoring the financial dominance LIV once flaunted. That shift has changed the leverage game. As one report noted, efforts to reconcile the tours have cooled, leaving many golfers whose contracts end “with careers hanging in the balance.”

So, where does this leave LIV Golf? Its teams still compete. Its purses still pay. Its stars like Rahm, Smith, and Koepka still draw crowds. Yet, beneath the surface, something feels different. The noise has dulled. The revolution looks tired.

As O’Hern said, “I’m just so keen to see what happens.” He’s not alone. The next few months will decide who stays, who fades, and whether LIV Golf’s silence is strategy or the first sign of something unraveling.