DP World Tour CEO Responds Firmly as LIV Golf Pros Reportedly Seek Return

A February deal between eight LIV players and the DP World Tour was seen as a one-off arrangement at the time. However, now with PIF pulling back spending and an event already postponed, that agreement is starting to look like the first chapter of a much bigger story. At this week’s Turkish Airlines Open in Antalya, DP World Tour CEO Guy Kinnings addressed the growing speculation around LIV’s future directly.

“We’re reading the headlines and observing,” Kinnings told TG. “We’ve got members and dual members [of the DPWT and LIV) and we listen to them. The headlines that we’ve seen in the last few weeks have got to be concerning. But all we do is control what we can control and make sure our product is as good as it can be. I don’t think it can be easy with all of that sort of going on. But at the moment, our focus is just on us doing what we can do. We listen to players, listen to their representatives all the time, and go from there.”

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“Players coming and supporting at events where it improves the quality of the event and helps the tour as a whole. So we will wait and see how things evolve, but we’re obviously listening, and we’re listening to players and agents and others who have questions about what the future may hold and we’ll handle it as we go forward. But for sure, I think there’s an opportunity for us to continue to grow the strength of the tour, which is my only job really.”

This response carries a familiar tone. Just days earlier, new PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said he would consider additional pathways for players wanting to return from LIV, following Brooks Koepka’s reinstatement through a newly created Returning Members Program. Both chief executives, when asked the same basic question, gave answers that were measured but pointed in the same direction: the door is open; come correct, and we will talk.

The urgency behind these questions is not hard to understand. PIF, the main financial backer of LIV, has indicated a slowdown in sports expenditure after investing more than $5 billion in the project. There already is a tournament scheduled for June 25-28, 2026, in New Orleans that has been postponed, and local officials are seeking refunds. There have been reports of payment delays to employees and players, directly contradicting earlier reassurances from LIV CEO Scott O’Neil that the season would continue uninterrupted.

Those close to the situation have told TG that several LIV players have already contacted the DP World Tour to ask about eligibility options for next season. One player is even considering playing on the HotelPlanner Tour, the second tier of European golf, if his schedule opens up in 2027.

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A template for the return path already exists.Eight two-man teams in LIV signed a conditional agreement with Wentworth in February that allowed them to play in conflicting events without tournament releases. Those golfers were Tyrrell Hatton, Laurie Canter, Thomas Detry, Tom McKibbin, Adrian Meronk, Victor Perez, David Puig, and Elvis Smylie. And in return, they settled overdue sanctions, abandoned appeals against the circuit, and committed to more DP World Tour starts.

Kinnings pointed directly to that agreement: “We’ve already shown that if people work within the rules… we worked out what worked well on those conditional releases.”

McKibbin, Puig, and Smylie all signed that deal and are competing in Antalya this week. For players weighing their options, the incentives are concrete. DP World Tour membership restores access to Official World Golf Ranking points, which directly affects major championship qualification. It also keeps Ryder Cup eligibility intact.

With LIV’s financial footing now openly in question, those factors carry significantly more weight than they did when the contracts were first signed.

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LIV Golf’s business model was always playing against the clock

Four years, $5 billion spent, and still years away from breaking even.

LIV Golf’s financial problem was never hidden. Every event carried an overhead of $5 million to $70 million, covering player guarantees, prize money, and staging costs. With limited sponsorship and minimal media rights revenue coming in, the math simply never worked in their favor.

The golf public made their preference clear early. Viewing figures for LIV in the United States remain a fraction of the PGA Tour’s numbers. The loud music, team formats, and “golf but louder” concept failed to pull in the young audience that LIV had built its entire identity around attracting.

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Finding alternative backers to replace PIF’s level of financial commitment looks close to impossible. Sponsors would need to absorb an undertaking that even Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is now stepping back from. No commercial entity operates at that scale without a credible path to profitability.

The mixed messaging from CEO Scott O’Neil, making statements and then backtracking in subsequent interviews, has only deepened the uncertainty. Whether LIV finds a way to evolve or faces a terminal outcome, the underlying business challenge was always going to catch up with the league eventually.

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