LOS ANGELES - If LIV Golf cannot come up with funding to sustain all elements of operation beyond 2026, the obvious question becomes where do the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Talor Gooch tee it up in 2027?
According to multiple reports, the PGA Tour and DP World Tour are "listening" to players who reach out about shifting circuits. The PGA Tour already has welcomed back Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed with tour-mandated stipulations accepted by both players as terms of their return.
Golf Digest reported that several LIV player representatives have been in contact with PGA Tour officials with their future clouded by the financial impact of the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund divesting in the breakaway league at the end of the season.
LIV Golf CEO Scott O'Neil said during the Mexico City event there is urgency in restructuring a sustainable model to move forward.
"The reality is you're funded through the season and then you work like crazy as a business to create... a business plan to keep us going," O'Neil said. "But that's not different from any other private equity-funded business in the history of man."
If initial efforts stall or fail, the queue out of LIV Golf could form quickly, presuming the prized golfers on the circuit find a suitable landing spot.
Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and DeChambeau were among early defectors away from the PGA Tour to LIV. Rahm, openly anti-LIV initially, would later join the circuit on a massive payday.
DeChambeau, Cameron Smith and Rahm reportedly turned down the opportunity to return to the PGA Tour earlier in 2026.
But the majority of the funding came from PIF, and that well is being turned off at the end of the current season.
The PIF provided LIV a US$5 billion (S$6.37 billion) bankroll, but the league has reportedly lost millions of dollars every year. Earlier in April, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, PIF's governor and LIV's main financial backer, shared a plan for the kingdom to cut back on international investments and focus on more domestic projects. Al- Rumayyan is expected to make his resignation as LIV chairman official soon.
According to MSN.com, some LIV players have reached out to the DP World Tour.
"We're in the mode of just listening because we don't know any more than anyone else does", DP World Tour chief executive Guy Kinnings told MSN.
"But we'll listen and we'll make sure that we're fully informed before we make the decisions that we need to do. But for sure, there are people who are concerned and we will be having conversations with them at the right time."
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp established the returning member programme as a pathway for players who had been away from the tour for at least two years and who had won either the Players Championship or any of the four Major championships from 2022 to 2025. Players had until Feb 2 to accept the offer.
The terms of rejoining the Tour likely are to be heavily tilted to the PGA's favour for anyone associated with the antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. DeChambeau was a prominent and vocal part of the suit.
Players who left the PGA Tour for LIV golf should face consequences if they want to return, 2023 Open Championship winner Brian Harman said on the sidelines of the Cadillac Championship on April 30.
"I would think that the fans want everyone to be playing together and, you know, time heals all wounds,"
the 39-year-old American said, although he noted there was "still some sentiment out here, especially with all the lawsuit stuff. That stuff's going to be tough to get past".
Harman is in favour of continued consequences for possible future returnees. "I think there has to be something," he said, saying it would help ease "bad blood and resentment".
US President Donald Trump, a well-known golf fan, said he would love to see top golfers like Masters champion and PGA Tour loyalist Rory McIlroy playing regularly against the likes of LIV golfers DeChambeau and Rahm.
"Now they'll all be accepted by the tour ... they'll all be back on tour and it'll be great,"
Mr Trump said, but also noted that LIV is still operational with its next event at his own Trump National in suburban Washington in May.