This 32-year-old LIV golfer didn’t expect his 2026 season to begin on the DP World Tour, let alone at one of its biggest stages. Adrian Meronk joined LIV Golf in December 2023. After moving to the breakaway league, the former DP World Tour Player of the Year believed that chapter of his career was quietly closing. More so because his membership was set to expire at the end of 2025. In his mind, there was no reason to look back. But the off-season brought an unexpected twist as he realised that he is still eligible to play DP World Tour events. However, this has left him in a limbo as the beef between LIV Golf and the DP World Tour still remains unsettled.

Having a conversation with Bunkered, Meronk shared his take on the matter and said, “I hope there can be an agreement, I think it could work well for everyone, opportunities to play on both tours. No more fines and stuff like that, I don’t think that makes sense to be honest.”

While he was looking to settle into the Saudi-backed league, Meronk discovered that his DP World Tour membership hadn’t actually ended. Suddenly, the Hero Dubai Desert Classic was back on the table. 

Presently, Meronk is still allowed to compete on both tours because his DP World Tour membership is technically valid. However, the DP World Tour had previously imposed fines, suspensions, and other sanctions on players who joined LIV Golf without releases. Though Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton have been leading an appeal process that challenges those punishments, the situation still remains unsettled. This uncertainty continues to leave a cloud of uncertainty over all LIV golfers who are trying to remain a part of the DP World Tour.

The 2026 LIV Golf season is scheduled to begin on February 4. While Meronk was initially gearing up to tee up for the opening event, a sudden revelation changed his plans. Although the Hero Dubai Desert Classic was not in his schedule, Meronk now finds himself teeing it up at Emirates Golf Club, playing the season’s opening Rolex Series event, despite once thinking he was done with the tour entirely.

He candidly reflected, “To be honest, I wasn’t aware that I was still eligible to be a member. I thought my membership was done last year so it was a nice surprise.”

As the LIV golfer currently tries to navigate DP World Tour rules and sanctions, he shared how he hopes that the DP World Tour and LIV Golf come to an agreement so that the golfers don’t lose out on opportunities and continue to play on both tours without any hassle.

Meanwhile, LIV Golf has decided to move from its 54-hole format to the traditional 72-hole format from the 2026 season. Scott O’Neil and team made this change in a bid to to make sure that LIV golfers get recognised under OWGR. 

While a final update regarding the same has not been cleared by OWGR, Meronk shared, “Obviously I lost two years of world ranking [points]. I guess it is going to be hard to make it right, but I know they are working on something. We’ll see what happens. It would be nice to work with [OWGR] for sure.”

Amid this major shift in golf’s power dynamics, relief could soon be brought to LIV Golf stars caught in limbo. And for Adrian Meronk, those changes could finally lead to a long-awaited breakthrough.

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Adrian Meronk might have his wish fulfilled as LIV Golf CEO has encouraging news

The whole golfing realm is well aware of the entire fiasco that panned out with Brooks Koepka. Having announced his exit from LIV Golf, Koepka wasn’t supposed to play for the PGA Tour until August 2026. However, with Brian Rolapp introducing the brand new Returning Member Program, Koepka is now back on the PGA Tour.

Such a development has instilled belief that something similar could happen with the DP World Tour fines, too. As of now, the likes of Tyrell Hatton, Jon Rahm, Adrian Meronk, and more are stranded in the middle. Due to their association with the Saudi-backed league, Rahm and Co. have been fined heavily by the DP World Tour.  However, they are reluctant to pay the dues, which has led to increased tension between the two parties.

Speaking about his fines, Rahm stated in an episode of the Subpar Podcast, “I don’t know it all [what is going on]. I have no idea. Do I think fines are going to magically disappear? I don’t think so but I think that’s going to slowly go away. I know it’s between one and one and a half million per year.”

Thankfully, in a recent update on X, Tee Times stated that Scott O’Neil is trying his best to make the DP World Tour roll back the pending fines.

The post read, “#LIVGolf CEO Scott O’Neil says this month they are hoping to finalize OWGR points AND have the DP World Tour roll back the fines assessed to LIV Golf players.”

Thus, Meronk and Co. does have reasons to get excited. However, what happens in the long run is a question that only ‘Father Time’ can answer.