An influx of LIV Golf rebels to the DP World Tour could make the race for Ryder Cup spots extremely interesting.
The BBC has reported that players who want to stay with LIV in 2027 will not be allowed membership on the DP World Tour, forcing them to choose one way or the other.
Players such as Tyrrell Hatton, Adrian Meronk, Thomas Detry and Victor Perez still belong to LIV but also have DPWT membership. The same goes for Jon Rahm, but the Spaniard is set to leave the breakaway circuit he joined in 2024.
In April, the Saudi Public Investment Fund announced it would stop bankrolling the league, founded in 2022, and LIV has now filed for bankruptcy. Rahm is expected to be followed by many others.
Until now, DPWT members who joined LIV faced fines and suspensions under the tour’s conflicting tournament rules, but could still play as long as they addressed the sanctions. Rahm and Hatton both faced hefty punishments, which they initially appealed, but settled with conditional release agreements earlier this year.
Under appeal, Rahm and Hatton played enough events to keep their DPWT status, which is required to compete for Europe as they did at the Ryder Cup in 2025.
With the next matches with America less than a year away, the likes of Meronk, Detry, Perez and their other European LIV colleagues will no doubt have this on their minds. They can either stay with the bare bones of LIV 2.0, or return to the DPWT and earn points towards a Ryder Cup debut in Ireland in 2027.
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David Howell: LIV Golfers could now stake claims for Ryder Cup selection
Luke Donald will be European captain for the third time in a row next year, and in his first two captaincies, his 12-man teams were nearly the same, with Rasmus Hojgaard replacing his brother Nicolai being the only difference between 2023 and 2025.
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A tightly-knit group of nearly the same players delivered back-to-back victories for Europe, but with a host of continental talent possibly returning to play a full schedule from LIV, where there was scant opportunity to earn Ryder Cup points and no world ranking recognition until 2026, might Donald make some dressing room adjustments if new prospects find form?
“There’s an awareness that you can qualify from playing really good golf on our tour with only six spots, with the way our points are structured,” former European Ryder Cupper David Howell told NCG. “Certainly, this time of year is crucial for anyone who wants to qualify for the Ryder Cup.
“How they perform in the majors is crucial, and how people play on the PGA Tour – there’s a lot of points on offer to make our team there. The race has changed in terms of making our team – even just having six players picked and six players qualified – that’s a huge shift from where it used to be.
“Should a (Thomas) Detry come back, if they’re not playing on the PGA Tour, it’s doable, and it could be that one of these excellent players comes back from LIV, plays a strong schedule throughout the whole of our 2027 calendar, and they might qualify. That might well be the case.
“It’s doable, but you’ve got to play very well. You have to be a very good player,” he added.
“You’re not going to have a scenario where four players come back from LIV and fill out those top six spots. That’s not going to be the case. I would say that’s not doable.”
Six players make the team automatically via the points list, then Donald chooses the rest. He might have a larger pool of talent to choose from this time around. Recent Alfred Dunhill Links Champion Meronk is said to be leaving LIV to come back to the DPWT, as is young Spanish star David Puig.
Rahm is set to compete on the DPWT in 2027, and possibly the PGA Tour. His fellow countryman, Masters champion, Ryder Cup star and LIV rebel Sergio Garcia could also forge a path back to the Old World Circuit. The Ryder Cup is never far from Garcia’s mind.
After the DP World Tour Championship in November, the DPWT’s membership is updated with a full list of exempt players. We will then find out which golfers have decided to abandon the once-Saudi-funded LIV league and kickstart their careers back on the formerly-named European Tour.
“We’ve had a lot of people already playing. Joaquin Niemann is playing regularly, to name just one, Thomas Detry and so forth. 16 or 17 members of our tour have got categories for next year. Laurie Canter will be a member next year, and that name just jumps out at me there.
“Some have got rankings, and some haven’t – But they’ve been playing this year.
“Will there be a few other names that join up? We’ll absolutely have to wait and see, but we’re hopeful that’ll be the case, for sure.”
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David Howell: DP World Tour players want to progress to the PGA Tour
Last week, BC Partners announced it had entered into a Restructuring Support Partnership with LIV Golf, and its co-founder Ted Goldthorpe, who recently appeared at a Sportico conference with LIV CEO Scott O’Neil, believes each LIV team could be worth up to $100 million a piece in the future.
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Despite ongoing optimism and O’Neil’s determination to keep LIV afloat, an exodus of players would surely burst any LIV 2.0 balloon before it was blown up.
Players might also be attracted by the pathway the DPWT provides to the PGA Tour.
The top 10 players in the Race to Dubai at the end of this season will earn cards on the US circuit. Those leaving LIV might be inspired by Patrick Reed and Eugenio Chacarra, who left the league and now occupy the top two spots in the current Race to Dubai rankings.
Howell points out that, despite the qualities of the global nature of the DPWT, the end goal for many players is to play on the PGA Tour, with whom they share a strategic partnership.
“No one’s got any idea what’s happening to LIV. We know it’s gone into bankruptcy,” he added, who is also a tournament committee director.
“Will it come out the other side? Very possibly it will. Scott O’Neill certainly seems to talk like it will. It could be that they are still a going concern and a strong competitor/threat to our business and our members for years to come.
“We don’t know, but it’s got to the point where we have tournaments as strong as we have at this time of year, and for our players to have played for the amount of money they have over the last five years – many of them have had the opportunity to go and play on our tour and then progress to the PGA Tour.
“Let’s not beat around the bush. If you’re growing up in the last 10 or 15 years hoping to be a golfer, you’re hoping to play on the PGA Tour. When I was growing up, I was hoping to play on the European Tour. They were level playing fields then.
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“Our members have been really well served so far by what we’ve provided for them over the last four or five years since they’ve come along. The future will be different. They haven’t got a firm offering yet. We haven’t got a firm deal with the PGA Tour.
“No one quite knows what the golfing landscape looks like.
“We’re getting some clarity now on what the PGA Tour looks like, so that opens up a window for us, and of course, everyone wants to see great players.
“What I do know is that our players want to play against great players. They don’t want easy street. They’re not after being given loads of money for beating no one.
“They want to play against the best players in the world as often as possible, and they want to earn their points and their money, and they want to do it with some glamour and some pizzazz and be in good places on good golf courses.
“We know what they want, and if LIV does go away, then it might prove easier to provide those aspects. But we can provide most of them anyway.”
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