The DP World Tour has told its members, in effect, to pick a side. From the 2027 season, anyone who signs up to play LIV Golf will not be allowed to hold membership of the European tour — and because only DP World Tour members can represent Europe in the Ryder Cup, the decision effectively closes the door on LIV players ever pulling on a European shirt again.
“Players need to make a choice,” Guy Kinnings, chief executive of the DP World Tour, told BBC Sport. “We have rules and regulations which are there to protect our tour and which our members must all abide by. Players who are not willing to comply with our rules and regulations should not be seeking to join our tour.”
The announcement, made on 12 October 2026, marks a sharp hardening of the tour’s position. For several seasons the European circuit had tolerated a delicate balancing act, granting conditional releases that allowed a handful of stars — Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton among them — to play LIV events while keeping their DP World Tour cards, and with them their Ryder Cup eligibility. That arrangement is now over.
How the new rules work
Under the new approach, players will be asked to disclose which tours they intend to play on next year, and their answer will count when the tour decides on membership applications. Anyone who signs up for the DP World Tour while privately intending to play LIV risks more than embarrassment: if a player fails to disclose the intention and joins LIV anyway, that would be grounds for termination of membership.
The tour has also closed a side door. Players such as Joaquin Niemann and Thomas Pieters, who never held full status in Europe, could previously have secured invitations to a set number of tournaments through agreements with the DP World Tour. Those agreements will now only be available to players who are not part of LIV going forward.
About 15 LIV players currently hold “status” with the DP World Tour, meaning they have eligibility under one of the membership categories. Alongside Rahm and Hatton, that group includes Victor Perez and Tom McKibbin. For all of them, the arithmetic is now simple: stay with LIV and lose the European tour, or leave LIV and keep a route to the Ryder Cup.
Two deadlines, five weeks apart
The timing is no accident. LIV Golf, operating under a court-supervised restructuring after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September, must sign its players up by 25 October. The DP World Tour’s own membership deadline for next season falls on 16 November. Players who want to weigh both options have roughly three weeks between the two dates to work out where their futures lie.
That window is exactly the problem facing Hatton. The Englishman, a four-time Ryder Cup participant for Team Europe, has not made his intentions public, and the squeeze between the two deadlines leaves him little room to manoeuvre. Rahm, by contrast, appears to have already decided: last week his attorneys told a New Jersey bankruptcy court that the two-time major winner does not want to be part of LIV’s future.
Rahm is not alone in heading for the exit. Sergio Garcia was granted release from his LIV contract, and fellow Spaniard David Puig said he was no longer interested in playing with the league. Attorneys for Cameron Smith, Matt Wolff and other players have asked the court whether Garcia’s exit sets a precedent for their own clients — a sign that more departures could be in the pipeline.
Why the tour changed its mind
The DP World Tour granted conditional releases to nine players this season, so what changed? Two things, according to reporting by BBC Sport and Golf Digest.
The first is equity. LIV has begun offering players stakes in the league itself, and tour officials view that as fundamentally incompatible with the DP World Tour’s nature as a members’ organisation. A player who owns a piece of a rival circuit, the reasoning goes, cannot also be a member of the tour he is competing against.
The second is leverage. The DP World Tour’s strategic alliance with the PGA Tour is currently being renegotiated, and the tougher stance likely reflects a desire to enter those discussions from a position of strength. The PGA Tour suspended LIV players back in 2022 when the Saudi-backed league launched; the European tour’s willingness to accommodate them was always the outlier, and it has now ended.
Relations between the two sides had already soured. In August, LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil said the league wanted to “complete, not compete” the golf ecosystem — a comment that landed badly at DP World Tour headquarters after LIV tried to poach several of the tour’s tournaments and sponsors. O’Neil also accused a DP World Tour leader of contacting LIV players directly to discuss their options; subsequent reporting indicated it was actually player agents making those approaches.
LIV’s fight to survive
All of this is unfolding against the backdrop of LIV Golf’s scramble to secure a future at all. The league filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September after the withdrawal of its multi-billion dollar funding from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Last week it announced a possible $300m in financing from BC Partners Credit to keep a 2027 season alive.
Ted Goldthorpe, head of BC Partners Credit, told BBC Sport he was “confident” LIV would have a “critical mass” of players. At a London conference, he was more emphatic still: “We’re super committed. As [LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil] said, we’re going to start hiring back employees and planning for next year’s events. All systems go.”
Not everyone is convinced. There are questions over whether BC Partners is genuinely interested in running a golf league, given the firm’s history of taking on troubled companies for future tax credits. The next bankruptcy hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, and the outcome could shape how much of LIV’s promised 2027 season ever materialises.
On the player front, the defections have thinned the ranks. Richard Bland is currently the only player to have stated publicly that he wants to play on what is being called LIV 2.0. Victor Perez indicated last month that he hoped there would be a future for the league, but few others have followed Bland’s lead.
What it means for the Ryder Cup
The Ryder Cup is the thread that ties this whole story together. The DP World Tour oversees the European team, and only its members are eligible for selection. When the tour granted conditional releases to Rahm, Hatton and others, it did so in part to keep those players available for future Ryder Cups. By withdrawing that accommodation, the tour has made the choice brutally simple for anyone with transatlantic ambitions: membership of the European tour, or membership of LIV — not both.
For Hatton, a stalwart of four European campaigns, the decision carries real weight. For Rahm, the court filings suggest the calculation has already been made. And for the dozens of players further down LIV’s roster, the next five weeks will determine whether they still have a European tour to come back to.
Frequently asked questions
Can LIV Golf players still play in the Ryder Cup?
Only players who are members of the DP World Tour can play for Europe in the Ryder Cup. From 2027, the tour will not accept membership from anyone intending to play on LIV Golf, so LIV players will lose their Ryder Cup eligibility unless they leave the league.
What are the key deadlines?
LIV Golf must sign players up by 25 October under its court-supervised restructuring process. The DP World Tour’s membership deadline for the 2027 season is 16 November.
Why is the DP World Tour changing its rules now?
The tour views LIV’s practice of offering players equity in the league as incompatible with its status as a members’ organisation. The change also comes while the tour’s strategic alliance with the PGA Tour is being renegotiated.
Which players have left or signalled they will leave LIV?
Jon Rahm has said he will not continue on LIV, Sergio Garcia was granted an exit from his contract, and David Puig said he is no longer interested in playing with the league. Richard Bland is the only player to have publicly stated a desire to stay with LIV 2.0.