DP World Tour to refuse LIV players in 2027 season — SkimNews
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- DP World Tour announced players signing up for LIV Golf's 2027 season will be refused membership, with CEO Guy Kinnings telling BBC Sport players "need to make a choice" and must disclose their 2027 tour intentions.
- Ryder Cup eligibility now hinges on DP World Tour membership, and concealed LIV commitments will be treated as grounds for terminating a player's tour membership.
- About 15 LIV players — including Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Victor Perez, and Tom McKibbin — currently hold "status" with the DP World Tour and must declare their intentions under the new rules.
- LIV Golf's equity offer is the main driver of the DP World Tour's shift, deemed incompatible with its members-organization structure, with negotiations over a strategic alliance with the PGA Tour also in play.
- LIV Golf filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September after Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund withdrew multi-billion-dollar funding, and has since secured a possible $300m from BC Partners Credit to pursue a 2027 season.
- November 16 is the DP World Tour's sign-up deadline for 2027, while LIV Golf must sign players by October 25 under its court-supervised restructuring — a three-week window that locks players into one tour or the other.
- Two-time major winner Jon Rahm has said he will not continue on LIV, while lawyers for Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith asked the court to confirm that rejecting LIV contracts would count as "termination," freeing them to negotiate elsewhere; Richard Bland is the only player publicly committed to LIV 2.0.
Why it matters: Roughly 15 LIV-affiliated golfers now face a hard binary: choose the DP World Tour and Ryder Cup eligibility, or commit to LIV's restructured league. The deadline collision — October 25 for LIV versus November 16 for the DP World Tour — funnels players toward a single decision point, and Rahm's high-profile exit plus Bland's lone public commitment suggest LIV's equity offer is alienating rather than retaining top talent.
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