Not a day goes by that LIV Golf doesn’t bat off scrutiny and criticism as the new league on the block looks to forge a place in golf’s establishment.
Shotgun starts? 54 holes? RangeGoats?
The Saudi-funded circuit has rocked the boat of professional golf, but regardless of your thoughts, LIV brings a lot of intrigue before each season, and that’s down to the pulling power.
Jon Rahm shocked fans and players alike by signing on the LIV-dotted line in December 2023, and his Ryder Cup teammate Tyrrell Hatton followed. The stardom of a roster that already included Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson increased big time.
In 2025, it was another season that saw fresh faces being linked with moves to LIV Golf before the opening event. They secured the services of Ben Campbell and Frederik Kjettrup for the 2025 season. And they bagged another young star from Europe, too.
Through the Race to Dubai rankings in 2024, Tom McKibbin earned a PGA Tour card, which was the same year he made his debut at The Open and the US Open. It also appears his fellow Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy is somewhat a mentor of his, or a friend at least, who has consistently opposed the LIV Golf League in public.
Ten Golf first reported McKibbin would join Rahm and Hatton’s LIV team Legion XIII, a route that made sense given the strong European contingent and Kieran Vincent’s 2024 relegation opening a spot. He did indeed sign.
The youngster from Holywood Golf Club, McIlroy’s home club, was exempt for The Open at Royal Portrush in 2025. However, he will now have to find new ways of getting into the majors, as LIV Golf events still don’t offer world ranking points.
Are there other players making the leap too? Let’s take a look at the hottest LIV Golf rumours that still linger.
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LIV Golf rumours: Who is rumoured to be joining LIV Golf?
Patrick Cantlay
Patrick Cantlay was linked with LIV shortly after the league’s inaugural event after admitting a lucrative offer would be “very tempting”. The American then rebuked his claims at the 2022 Rocket Mortgage Classic, insisting he has no plans to join the series “at the moment”.
The rumours escalated again following the 2022 LIV Golf Team Championship, with The Guardian reporting that Patrick Cantlay and best bud Xander Schauffele were top of the Saudi’s wish list for 2023.
After keeping tight-lipped for several months, Cantlay put his foot down on the matter at the following Sentry Tournament of Champions, insisting he has “no plans” to join LIV “as of now”.
Cantlay is a player director on the PGA Tour Policy Board and plays a key role in shaping the PGA Tour’s future.
Could he leave while in such a position of influence?
Cameron Young
Could the PGA Tour’s oversaturation of players called Cameron soon become a LIV issue? Only if you believe the papers.
2022 Open Championship runner-up Cameron Young was linked with LIV during the summer of 2022 after The Times dropped a source-less story he was heading to LIV.
This was shortly reciprocated as ‘coulds’ and ‘maybes’, before Young announced after the FedEx Cup Playoffs he had ‘decided to stay’ on the PGA Tour.
Tony Finau
It felt like when, not if with Tony Finau‘s possible move to LIV Golf. It was widely reported that the six-time PGA Tour winner was in negotiations to follow Rahm to the Saudi-funded circuit.
This is what he said when he was asked about moving to LIV at the 2023 Grant Thornton Invitational: “I have nothing to say right now.” However, Finau took to Instagram to confirm he was staying with the PGA Tour.
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The towering American was linked with another move to LIV Golf ahead of the 2025 season, during a time when a lingering legal dispute in his personal life rose to prominence again.
The crux of Finau’s legal issue is a question as to whether he owes Utah businessman Molonai Hola a significant chunk of his career earnings.
In 2006, Hola invested $600,000 in Finau’s career under the assumption that he would receive 20% of Finau’s career earnings, but there was no written agreement.
With this ongoing noise in the background of Finau’s PGA Tour career, which has yielded over $40 million, fans could be forgiven for thinking an attractive sign-up fee with LIV could help to make these legal issues disappear.

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Hideki Matsuyama
Word on the street for months was that the 2020 Masters champion would be joining LIV in 2022, with many reports suggesting he would receive a $400 million signing-on fee.
Matsuyama even pulled out of the FedEx St Jude Championship in August of that year with a neck injury – enticing more speculation he’d be one of Norman’s big-name announcements after the Playoffs. But, in a surprise turn of events, the Japanese star insisted he was “fully committed” to the PGA Tour.
Matsuyama’s place in the game can’t be overstated. He has flown the flag for Japan as a top amateur and professional for a number of years, and it is no surprise that reports linked him with a strong interest from the LIV Golf League.
Rickie Fowler
Rickie Fowler arrived at the 2024 Sentry Tournament of Champions without the regular Farmers Insurance and Rocket Mortgage branding on his shirts.
Much to no one’s surprise, this led some golf fans to suspect a LIV Golf move was in the offing, but Fowler told Golfweek this wasn’t the case.
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“You don’t have to worry about that,” he said.
“Seeing how much work the guys on the (PGA Tour) board, especially being around (Patrick) Cantlay during the off-season a little bit and leading up to this event, I’ve never seen a person be on the phone so much.
“These guys are pouring a lot of time and effort into it. I was on the PAC last year but have tried to stay out of the way because the guys that are in there, I trust.
“With Jordan, Cantlay, Tiger and the other guys, I’ve just trusted that we’re all going to end up in a good spot and I have zero plans to go anywhere.”

ALSO: Which LIV golfers can play in the majors in 2026?
Wyndham Clark
Since the end of the 2023 LIV Golf season, Wyndham Clark‘s name has been thrown into the rumour mill.
Flushing It posted on X on January 15, 2024, that Clark was in negotiations with LIV, which would have represented a big acquisition as the US Open champion at the time.
Having just made his Ryder Cup debut and announcing himself even louder to the world of golf too, Clark was at the peak of his powers and an established PGA Tour star when LIV speculation started.
After being named the winner of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am after the event was ended by bad weather after 54 holes in 2024, Clark confirmed he turned down LIV:
“There’s definitely some truth,” he said. “I definitely met with LIV and went through those discussions. I wanted to see what they could bring to the table.
“I ultimately declined going to LIV because I felt like I still have a lot of things left in the tank on the PGA Tour and I wanted to chase records, I wanted to chase world ranking.
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“My dream is to try to be one of the top players in the world if not the top player. I just grew up always imagining winning PGA Tour events. So ultimately, I chose my legacy over LIV and that’s really what it came down to.
“I don’t know what the future holds with my career and what the PGA Tour and LIV is going to do, but at least for this season I am 100 per cent set on the PGA Tour and I want to try to get to as high in the world as I possibly can.”
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Will any of these LIV Golf rumours come true? Do you enjoy following LIV Golf rumours? Have the LIV Golf rumours been the best pat of the league? Tell us on X!
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