PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Laurie Canter is a soft-spoken 36-year-old father of two from Bath, England, who is quick to shrug off even the slightest suggestion of pretense.
On a bright morning at The Players Championship – the PGA Tour’s crown jewel which is played in the shadow of the circuit’s new global home – Canter was asked if he felt like a “trailblazer?”
“No, no, I don’t feel like a trail blazer, no,” he insisted. “I feel lucky that I wasn’t a member of the PGA Tour. If I had been, I couldn’t be here. So, it’s the fact I didn’t have my PGA Tour card and it’s the position I was in. So, I’m not – no, definitely not.”
Canter’s journey from LIV Golf to the Tour’s flagship event is worth exploring, but first the administrative minutiae. In 2022 he joined the start-up LIV Golf league as a member of the Cleeks GC. At the time the move was a career imperative, not a political statement.
“The financial opportunity to go and, I mean, from where I lived [in England], the first event was like 25 miles north, so I didn’t really think much more than just playing an event with some players for a lot of money,” he said. “To be honest that was it.”
Canter played the ’23 LIV season as a reserve and last year he began with the same status but played only the first two events. That’s relevant because had he added a few more starts on the Saudi-backed league he wouldn’t have been able to play this week’s Players Championship.
As a non-member, Canter was subject to a one-year suspension from any Tour events for playing what the Tour deems an “unauthorized tournament,” which means he was eligible to play on Tour after the Genesis Invitational in February. For former Tour members who joined LIV the Tour has not clarified any possible suspensions or fines for violating the circuit’s media-release policy.
Canter earned his spot at TPC Sawgrass via his position inside the top 50 in the world ranking, jumping from 53rd to 42nd following his runner-up finish in the South African Open earlier this month. He is the first former LIV player to participate in a Tour event that isn’t either a major or a co-sanctioned tournament, like the Scottish Open.
The pathway back for LIV players on the DP World Tour has been clearer with players needing only to pay fines that has resulted in a healthy amount of crossover between the two circuits.
“I feel like on the DP World Tour where I’m a member it’s enhanced some events. I think a couple of those guys come and play,” Canter said. “If that was something that the PGA Tour looked at, if they, for example, looked at Dubai or potentially Spanish Open, that kind of thing, and see the effect it has, that might be something [the PGA Tour] would think about.
“But I can’t speak for the PGA Tour because yeah, I’m not even a [Tour] member. I feel, like I said, grateful to have the opportunity I have.”
Canter wants to be a Tour member and narrowly missed that opportunity last year, finishing 24th on the year-ending Race to Dubai rankings with the top 10 earning PGA Tour cards. He’s now first on that list following his runner-up showing in South Africa and a victory at the Bahrain Championship in January.
“I think anyone who plays golf would [want to be a PGA Tour member],” he said. “You look at this week, the event last week I watched, to play those signature events, where they’re going. If you could engineer, play well enough to get your world ranking, then you’ve got those signature events and majors, what a year that is as a golfer to play those venues with those players for that amount of money, it’s incredible to me.”
Canter admitted his first year on LIV when the professional game was fractured and divided he felt like a “naughty school boy,” which makes his journey to his first Players Championship that much more rewarding, if not overshadowed by the elephant in the room.
“I have had like the odd bit of needle about someone was talking about how good the players’ lounge, this week is incredible, and they were just saying, ‘You wouldn’t get any of this on LIV,’” Canter laughed. “It’s been a bit more tongue in cheek.”
His reluctance to embrace the role of trailblazer aside, Canter acknowledged his unique position at TPC Sawgrass, particularly after being approached by Tour commissioner Jay Monahan early Wednesday with a gift for participating in his first Players Championship.
“Probably like not exactly like this, but, yeah, I mean, it’s how it’s evolved,” he said when asked if he could have envisioned meeting Monahan during those contentious early days on LIV. “He just gave me a sort of Tiffany box here, so that’s very nice. So, yeah, it’s great to have the chance to do that and play on this Tour.”
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