With its season-ending tournament already scrapped and its purse reduced, LIV Golf is showing signs of what lies ahead. Fewer events, less money, and the constant threat of closure could make some LIV Golfers reconsider their futures and look toward a return to the PGA Tour. While such a transition may not be easy, World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler appears ready to leave the past behind.
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“I think when we talk about the best players, LIV has a few players that are really good,” Scheffler said during a press conference in St. Louis, Missouri. “I think the depth that we have on our TOUR is [a] bit unmatched, but when you look at the higher levels of LIV Golf, there’s definitely some players that would provide a lot of value to the Tour, and guys that I love competing against as well.”
Big names like Jon Rahm, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, and Cameron Smith all left the PGA Tour for massive, multi-million-dollar offers from the Saudi-backed league after LIV Golf launched in 2022. In response, the PGA Tour initially handed defectors indefinite suspensions.
The Tour also revamped its schedule, introducing lucrative Signature Events with massive purses to retain top talent, while partnering with a $3 billion U.S. sports investment group to strengthen its financial foundation. Now, Scheffler believes that Brian Rolapp should allow LIV players to return, but not without consequences.
“So I think going forward there obviously has to be, I think, some sort of penalties,” he added. “What those are, I’ll let Rolapp and all those guys figure it out. We have great leadership within the TOUR now.
“But I think having those guys come back and compete with whatever happens with LIV, whether those guys want to leave, I mean, you got to ask them. But I think, for me being able to compete against the best players in the world, there’s certainly some guys on that TOUR that can compete out here, and I look forward to the chance to compete with them more often.”
Koepka is the prime example of how a LIV golfer can make a successful comeback to the American Tour. In January 2026, he secured reinstatement through the PGA Tour’s newly established Returning Member Program, which allowed elite past members who won a major championship between 2022 and 2025 to rejoin under strict financial and competitive penalties.
Meanwhile, LIV Golf has been struggling to avoid extinction in 2027. Saudi Arabia’s PIF pulled its funding in April, sending the league into a spiral as it looked for new investors. After months of speculation about what would happen to the rebel league, LIV Golf’s CEO Scott O’Neil finally announced that they had found an unnamed investor for 2027.
After the update, it seemed LIV had been saved, but later reports revealed that contractors and vendors, old and new, claimed LIV hadn’t paid them for their work. Fresh Tape Media even ended up suing LIV Golf for $1.23 million for the same reason. This added to multiple other lawsuits filed against the league, further putting its future in question.
Many names have been linked to a potential return to the PGA Tour. With Bryson DeChambeau’s contract with LIV ending this year, some speculated that he could come back to the PGA Tour. However, Forbes has reported that LIV is considering offering DeChambeau $500 million to stay with it as it rolls into the 2027 season.
If DeChambeau still decides to return to the PGA Tour, he clearly has one supporter: Scheffler.