It looked like the perfect underdog story when the 36-year-old finished 7th in the Race to Dubai standings and became the first player to officially earn a PGA Tour card in the post-LIV era after suspension from the PGA. This comeback journey saw fruition on the DP Tour and ended after only Marco Penge earned his ticket. Everyone thought he had successfully crossed the bridge, but the bridge apparently led right back to where Laurie Canter started.

When all the confetti was swept up in Dubai, a report surfaced that the Englishman isn’t taking his talents to America for the 2026 season. Rather, he basically used the PGA Tour access as a brilliant leverage play. Popular Golf account NUCLR GOLF dropped the news on X: “#UPDATE — Laurie Canter, the former LIV Golfer who recently earned back his PGA TOUR card for 2026 through the DPWT rankings is set to re-join LIV Golf, per @JoshACarpenter.”

Canter spent a decade grinding on small tours like the Jamega Pro Golf Tour before joining LIV Golf’s Cleeks GC in June 2022. He played there and earned a lot with the rebel league, and those paychecks dwarfed his earnings from the previous ten years combined. But the good times stopped when performance dipped and LIV relegated him to wild-card status in 2023.

The English golfer returned to the DP World Tour after losing his lucrative LIV roster spot and won the European Open in Hamburg last June and the Bahrain Championship in February this year. Those wins rebuilt his value and secured that coveted PGA Tour card. But recently, a spot opened on the LIV’s Majesticks GC with Henrik Stenson’s relegation. Canter shares management with them and chooses a guaranteed payday there over the risk cutlines of the PGA Tour.

And honestly, this did not sit well with the fans, who were expecting a heroic return to the American establishment, not a U-turn. Expectedly, they expressed their anger loudly across social media platforms.

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Let’s take a look at how the golf community actually processed this shock

Fans feel totally betrayed after watching Canter grind for ranking points recently. They wrote, “Genuinely shocked at this if true @BenColeyGolf @sam_golf. A lot of words about a new career challenge, a lot of goodwill once lost and then earned back, all pissed away because… money. Again.” The frustration stems from the math, as LIV guarantees money even for finishing last weekly. And that guaranteed paycheck clearly outweighs the prestige of potentially missing cuts on the PGA Tour.

And some even believe this move exposes a lack of competitive fire against the sport’s absolute geniuses: “Speaks volumes. He does though lack confidence and belief that he could retain his PGAT card and succeed on the tour. I rather think he would do very well. But why wouldn’t you want to compete against some of the best players in the world. Pity!” After choosing the comfort of the Majesticks team room over the ruthless PGA Tour, Canter proved that.

So another fan just repeated the same feeling, saying, “These average tour players want nothing to do with Scottie and Rory.” Scottie Scheffler posted an insane 68.65 scoring average in 2024, and Rory McIlroy just did something similar this season. Avoiding that unbeatable dominance by playing in a closed league is essentially avoiding that nearly impossible fight altogether.

But the changing rules of the PGA Tour likely forced his hand, too. The Tour reduced fully exempt cards from 125 to just 100 for 2026. Canter likely saw those odds and chose to grab the guaranteed cash instead. So one fan penned, “5. nteresting. Professional golf is cutthroat. Get your bag and then play. Maintaining your card on the PGATOUR going forward will be one of the hardest things to do in professional sports. It already was incredibly difficult. Now? 10x harder.”

But the chaotic marketplace of modern golf leaves many shaking their heads at the bizarre economics. Even the fan joked at the end, “The classic ‘buy high, sell low, buy higher’ investment strategy.”

In the end, his decision to pass on a return to the PGA Tour is his. Whether it proves to be a costly gamble or a move that preserves his long-term goals remains to be seen, but the scrutiny surrounding his choice isn’t fading anytime soon.