What are PGA Tour players saying about LIV Golf shutting down rumors?

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — For five years now, PGA Tour golfers have had to take questions about LIV Golf. What do they think? Have they considered joining? Should LIV golfers play in the majors? And now: What do you think if the rumors of LIV Golf's demise come to fruition?

As LIV heads to Mexico City of its sixth event of the season, the PGA Tour's is staging its 15th tournament of the year at the 2026 RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

Keith Mitchell is a player director on the PGA Tour and a member of the Tour's Future Competitions Committee. He was an obvious target to ask about LIV players returning but he opted to answer diplomatically.

"That’s a good question. Actually, it’s a great question," he said. "I think a lot of players have pretty strong opinions about it. I think you’ll have to ask them. I represent them, not me.” 

This week is a signature event with an 82-man field. Only one player who was approached declined to speak: Brooks Koepka, the former LIV player, who said, "I'm good." Gary Woodland, a member of the Tour's Player Advisory Council, said it wasn't a topic at last night's PAC meeting. He didn't hear about it until Wednesday morning and didn't want to comment on a rumor. That was a recurring theme. Too many rumors over the last several years, a feeling best articulated by Xander Schauffele.

"It’s kind of crazy to form an opinion based on all the rumors that are happening all the time between the two tours. I’m not going to waste a whole lot of thought on it, you know what I mean? I’m sure something concrete will come out of it if any of its true and if not everyone will just feel silly for thinking it was," Schauffele said.

When pressed if the players should be allowed back, he offered some balanced perspective. "It will be hard to get everybody on the same page on how it should look depending on where you are in the world (ranking), the FedEx, if you’ve won recently or you haven’t and things of that nature," he said. "So, I’m sure the player directors and board members have been planning for it for quite some time just in case. I’m as curious as you are, I can tell you that much."

Patrick Rodgers hated to give what he termed "a non-answer," saying this is all above his pay grade but there's some truth in what he said: "I feel like the thing (LIV players) were weighing was the possibility that this was an option. I think they were compensated for it. I’d love to have the players that make our Tour better, more marketable and competitive but I don’t think that sample size is enormous. I just try to focus on my golf. It serves me well not to be in the weeds on what is happening in the game.”

Wyndham Clark, who admittedly weighed a lucrative offer to head to LIV before deciding to stay, still hopes there is some punishment for those who took the payday. "If you still technically have status you can play and if not you should have to earn your way back. It will be interesting to see what they do. I hope there is at least something they do because a lot of guys had a chance to go and didn’t," he said. "If they can go make a bunch of money and come back, that’s a bummer. At this point, I don’t really care; I just want golf back and unified."

Michael Kim hadn't given it much thought yet and seemed to support sticking with the status quo.

"The Tour has had different sets of rules for different players. The standard has been one year, right?" he said. "I don’t know why it would be different for anybody else."

In the field is 2026 Genesis Invitational winner Jacob Bridgeman, who happened to be first up in the RBC media center after the rumors surfaced.

"I haven't heard really much about it. Look, Brooks [Koepka] was welcomed back, and it's been great for our Tour. Any more eyeballs we can get, I think it's great, and Brooks has been playing some great golf. He's earned it. He's a major champion, I think, five times," Bridgeman said. "If they're able to come back and promote our Tour, then great, and if they're not, then it's not really going to change my day-to-day."

Bridgeman sounded like a player keeping his head down and eyes focused on his own game but chances are he shares this sentiment with others.

"I'm going to play the golf that I play on this tour and have fun doing it, and if some guys that haven't been here for a few years come back over, then good for them, and if not, then it doesn't really matter to me."

Max Homa, also in the RBC field, told Golfweek, "Everyone deserves a place to play golf so it would be ridiculous to not allow them a place to play. I just heard that rumor an hour-and-a-half ago so it would be a hard one for me to digest at this moment, which is why I am not Brian Rolapp. I don't know, I guess we got to find out if the rumor is even true. We've heard a lot of untrue ones in the last three years."

What are LIV golfers saying about the rumors?

Sergio Garcia and his Fireballs teammates held a pre-tournament news conference in Mexico City early Wednesday morning. The team captain was the only one to be asked about the continued saga.

"No, honestly, we haven't heard anything other than what Yasir [Al-Rumayyan] already told us at the beginning of the year, that he is behind us," Garcia said in Mexico City on Wednesday, April 15. "And well, honestly, you know how these rumors are. There are always a lot of them and I can’t tell you anything more than what we already know."

Al-Rumayyan runs the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund which finances LIV Golf.