Uncertainty surrounds LIV golfers’ return to PGA as cloud looms over Adelaide
Jordan Spieth, like many in golf, is uncertain about the future of LIV golfers returning to the PGA Tour. Uncertainty also hangs over Adelaide’s hosting future.
Jordan Spieth is like everyone else in golf right now when trying to figure out if LIV golfers who left the PGA Tour will return.
He has no idea, nobody does.
“I think there’s just too many unknowns for me to have a good gauge on what would happen,” Spieth said.
On Thursday, Premier Peter Malinauskas also addressed news that LIV Golf plans to tell players and staff this week that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) will stop funding the circuit after this season.
Adelaide first hosted the sporting event in 2023, with the state government investing heavily in its future including starting preliminary works on a $45 million North Adelaide Golf Course redevelopment this week in its bid to grow the event in the state.
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Malinauskas at that stage, had not received official correspondence from LIV to verify its loss of funding and that initial works on the golf course development would continue in the meantime.
The announcement that Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund will stop funding LIV Golf after this year means some of the biggest names in the sport – Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Australia’s Cameron Smith among them – may aim to return to the PGA Tour at some point, much in the same way Brooks Koepka has and Patrick Reed likely will.
It was, as would be expected, a major talking point at the Cadillac Championship on Thursday.
“If there’s a system for Brooks and a system for Patrick Reed, does that stay the same for guys in the same category as those two coming back or does it change now? Does it change for guys who sued and dropped their membership?” Spieth asked.
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DeChambeau, for example, was among players who filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour in August 2022. That lawsuit, along with a countersuit by the PGA Tour, was dismissed a year later.
“There’s just a lot of different things that happened over the last four years for that,” Spieth said. “I’m kind of glad I’m not in that room, and I trust the guys that are in that room to make the right decision.”
One of the guys who will be in the room, but isn’t yet, is newly elected Player Advisory Council chairman Lucas Glover, who begins his four-year term on the board in January. It’s possible that by then, whatever needs to be decided will be an afterthought.
“I will never begrudge anybody for making a decision for the betterment of their career, their life, whatever that may be,” Glover said. “But do I think they should abide by the pathways back and pay the same penalties that the previous people have paid, absolutely.”
Koepka’s return, for example, came with stipulations including a $5 million donation to various charities that he and the tour selected, no access to PGA Tour equity shares for five years and no FedEx Cup bonus money he might earn this year.
“There’s always been pathways back with penalty, so yeah, sure, it can be done, as we have seen,” Glover said. “It’s already happened a couple times. I’m sure the tour is working diligently to figure all that out. I’m not privy to those phone calls.”
Brian Harman said he’s still operating under the belief golf fans want to see the best players competing in one place.
“Time heals all wounds,” Harman said. “There’s still some sentiment out here, especially with all the lawsuit stuff, that stuff’s going to be tough to get past. We play with all those guys in the majors, so I think there should be a path back.”
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