After a few years of players leaving the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour to join LIV Golf, it is going to be interesting to see how many return when their contracts with the league expire.
LIV Golf has certainly caused a stir since its first event in 2022. But given that the format is so different to what is seen on the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, as well as the fact that they have more than 50 players signed up, it is inevitable that some will question whether they were right to join LIV.
There were reports in 2024 that Jon Rahm was desperate to return to the PGA Tour. Meanwhile, some are intrigued to see where Brooks Koepka ends up amid rumours his contract expires this year.
Admittedly, it appears that Rahm is content with playing on LIV. But others may not be so happy.
PGA Tour winner suggests when he started to question his decision to join LIV Golf
Eugenio Chacarra hit out at LIV after losing his place before the 2025 season. And another player with experience of playing in the league has also suggested that not everything was ideal after making the jump.
Hudson Swafford won The American Express on the PGA Tour in the months before making the move. Swafford initially featured for Torque and was set to be on RangeGoats in 2023 before injury ruled him out for the year.
He was a wildcard upon his return in 2024 but finished in 55th for the season before losing his place.
And speaking to Subpar, Swafford has now shed light on when he started to second-guess whether he made the right decision to sign with LIV.
“I enjoyed travelling and going and seeing. On the PGA Tour I was not afraid to go to the Malaysia events or go to Asia and play and leave the country. I enjoyed going and seeing. So that part I thought was intriguing. I enjoyed going to a bunch of different countries and playing in front of different crowds, just playing in front of people who really enjoy the game,” he said.
“That part was very intriguing to me. And I enjoyed the travel and I enjoyed a little bit the shorter schedule, maybe 12 events is not quite enough but add a few more and it would have been really good.
“You can see there with your family on January 1st and plan some vacation time, which is very hard to do on the PGA Tour.
“There are a lot of times where you are planning something and you tell your wife the week before we can’t do this or I can’t be there. I can’t tell you how many times I had to do that with my wife, and my kids were irritated, but she knows the programme, it was just part of it.
“So I thought that was very intriguing and with the home life I thought it was going to be a lot better. Honestly, it was for the family time. It really was.”
“Things that I didn’t like were the lack of transparency, the rule changing – you never knew where we stood week to week or what was going to change,” he went on to add.
“I did have a long-term contract so a couple of years did not affect me. But rules were changing against guys that were playing very mediocre. So it was tough. I would try to get answers on certain different fronts and it was tough.
“When I had my injury to get answers was very tough. I basically created their injury policy. I still don’t think it’s very black and white over there.
“That part weighed on me, honestly. That was when I almost started second guessing my decision, how I was dealt with with my injury.
“There are injuries in sports, it’s going to happen. People are going to sit out and you’re going to have to miss times. It is what it is, and the way I was handled, I did not think it was very good until it was almost too late, but then they came back and honoured my contract and I have gotten my year back and played last year. I played very poorly, that was on me. But I got my chance. But honestly in the middle of the year I did not know if I was going to get that chance, so that part I thought would have really kind of crippled the tour going forward based on somebody getting hurt and that is kind of your chance and it’s over. I don’t think that would have sat very well going forward with guys.”
Hudson Swafford shares his reaction when LIV Golf confirmed they were abandoning push to receive world ranking points
One of the big talking points surrounding LIV over the last few years has concerned their fight for world ranking points. Players do not earn points through LIV events.
That is less of an issue for the likes of Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson, who do not need to worry about how they will get into most of the majors. But clearly, for others, that is a big problem.
And Swafford admitted that he was baffled when informed by the league that LIV were abandoning their push to receive world ranking points.
“I could not believe it when we went into a player meeting and they were like we are withdrawing our application. I was like why? Are you just giving up? We came over here on the consensus you were going to fight for us and it doesn’t matter what, and so it was like they threw their hands up and were like we didn’t get it. It’s like that was kind of bull—-,” he said.
Clearly, the PGA Tour is not the perfect product. And there always has to be some scepticism when a player who has already left LIV hits out at the league.
The true test will surely be how the two tours look in a few more years when LIV players do come to the end of their contracts and have a decision to make.
If the large majority do stay put, it will be telling.
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