DP World Tour tells LIV players: choose us or LIV in 2027
Pick a tour. The DP World Tour has told players who sign for LIV Golf next season that they cannot hold its membership in 2027, according to BBC Sport.
The choice is stark. Membership of the DP World Tour, the main European circuit, is required to play for Europe in the Ryder Cup, the biennial team contest against the United States. Chief executive Guy Kinnings said players need to make a choice about where they play.
For 2027, every player who wants DP World Tour membership will be asked to state which tours they intend to play on. The answer will count towards the membership decision. The tour will not accept anyone who plans to play on LIV 2.0, the proposed new LIV season.
There is no quiet workaround. If a player fails to declare an intention to play LIV and then tees it up there, that will count as grounds to terminate membership.
Around 15 LIV players currently hold DP World Tour status, including Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Victor Perez and Tom McKibbin. Rahm and Hatton played both circuits in previous seasons through conditional releases, formal permission to appear elsewhere while keeping membership. Nine players received those releases this season.
The calendar now squeezes both sides. Under its court-supervised restructuring, LIV must sign players by 25 October. The DP World Tour sign-up deadline for next year is 16 November.
LIV's future is still unsettled. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a US court process that shields a business from creditors while it reorganises, in September after funding from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund was withdrawn. It has since secured a possible $300 million in financing from BC Partners Credit to pursue a 2027 season.
Early signals point in different directions. Rahm has said he will not continue on the LIV tour. Lawyers for Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith have sought court clarification that rejection of LIV contracts would count as termination, which would free them to talk to third parties. Richard Bland is the only player to have publicly stated a desire to play on LIV 2.0.
The ruling follows reports last week of talks over a deal that would have let LIV players appear on the DP World Tour in 2027, reported by Yahoo Sports. That door now looks closed unless a player walks away from LIV.
For fans, this means the Ryder Cup picture clears early. Europe cannot pick a player without DP World Tour membership, so any European who commits to LIV next season also rules himself out of Adare Manor in 2027.
