{"id":642923,"date":"2026-05-01T14:50:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T14:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/642923\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T14:50:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T14:50:23","slug":"trump-urges-pga-tour-to-welcome-back-liv-rebels-after-saudi-funding-dries-up-liv-golf-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/642923\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump urges PGA Tour to welcome back LIV rebels after Saudi funding dries up | LIV Golf Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump has supported the reintroduction of LIV Golf players on to the PGA Tour after the league announced the withdrawal of \u00adfunding<\/a> by the Saudi Public Investment Fund.<\/p>\n

The US president said he would love to see top golfers who defected to the LIV circuit playing regularly against the PGA Tour\u2019s best as uncertainty engulfed the breakaway league following the announcement.<\/p>\n

Trump, speaking at the Oval Office, was asked if the PGA Tour should welcome back golfers who jumped ship to LIV, lured by massive contracts backed by PIF. \u201cWell, I do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to see LIV. But I do believe that all of the golfers should be playing \u2013 the great golfers \u2013 should be playing against each other. I want to see Rory [McIlroy] playing Bryson DeChambeau. I want to see big Jon Rahm play Scottie [Scheffler], who is so great.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something nice about all of the players playing together. Now they\u2019ll all be accepted by the Tour … they\u2019ll all be back on tour and it\u2019ll be great,\u201d Trump added.<\/p>\n

LIV this week postponed a scheduled tournament in New Orleans in June, with officials saying they hoped to reschedule for later this year. The next scheduled event is set for 7-10 May at Trump National in Virginia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure what\u2019s happening with LIV, but they are playing at my course in two weeks, on the Potomac,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the 2023 Open champion Brian Harman said golfers who left the PGA Tour for LIV should face consequences if they want to return.<\/p>\n

Harman, speaking at the PGA Tour\u2019s Cadillac Championship at Trump National Doral in Miami, said he expected there would be a path back but said it was too soon to predict just what it may be.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would think that the fans want everyone to be playing together and, you know, time heals all wounds,\u201d the 39-year-old American said, although he noted there was \u201cstill some sentiment out here, especially with all the lawsuit stuff. That stuff\u2019s going to be tough to get past\u201d.<\/p>\n

PGA Tour loyalists were angered when 11 golfers, including six-time major-winner Phil Mickelson, filed an anti-trust lawsuit <\/a>against the Tour in 2022 challenging their suspensions by the Tour after they signed big-money contracts with LIV when it was founded in 2021.<\/p>\n

Five-time major-winner Brooks Koepka has returned to the PGA fold under a returning member programme that includes substantial financial penalties. And Harman is in favour of continued consequences for possible future returning players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there has to be something,\u201d he said, saying it would help ease \u201cbad blood and resentment\u201d.<\/p>\n

But Harman noted that it was really too soon to say just how many golfers may abandon LIV. \u201cI\u2019m not sure that they\u2019re closing shop. The funding\u2019s drying up. They could secure funding from somewhere else and keep going. They have got a lot of big-name players over there, guys that move the needle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil it\u2019s all done, until you\u2019ve got guys that are actually calling and trying to come back to the Tour, it\u2019s not really a problem that we\u2019re dealing with currently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three-time major-winner Jordan Spieth said he was glad he wasn\u2019t called on to make a decision after the tensions that erupted. \u201cI know olive branches were given out, you know, a couple months ago. Brooks took them up on it. So I\u2019m not sure what would now change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Spieth said that even with the loss of Saudi funding \u201cthat doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that LIV\u2019s not going to still move on, too\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s just too many unknowns for me to have a good gauge on what would happen there,\u201d he added. But Spieth did indicate he found the issue of golfers returning from LIV a difficult topic, and he was happy not to be among those deciding any terms for their returns. \u201cThere\u2019s just a lot of different things that happened over the last four years,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m kind of glad I\u2019m not in that room.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump has supported the reintroduction of LIV Golf players on to the PGA Tour after the league…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-642923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}