Louis Oosthuizen quits LIV Golf and plans DP World Tour return
Louis Oosthuizen has quit LIV Golf, calling it the hardest decision of his career. The 2010 Open champion announced his departure on social media on 21 October 2026, and said he will return to the DP World Tour in 2027.
Oosthuizen joined LIV when it launched in 2022 and captained the Southern Guards team. He said a more flexible playing schedule would help him compete at a high level, and he pointed to the difficulty of managing the LIV 2.0 calendar. He has not played much this year. He pulled out of LIV Golf Andalucia in June with a back injury, and in July he withdrew from The Open at Royal Birkdale, where he was 43.
He is not the first. Thomas Pieters, Sergio Garcia, Abraham Ancer, David Puig and Adrian Meronk have also announced they are leaving LIV. The circuit has been under strain since September, when LIV Golf filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States. The filing came after Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund withdrew its multibillion-dollar backing. Chapter 11 is the American process that lets a business reorganise its debts while it keeps trading.
Jon Rahm has also left. He gave up a reported £75m that LIV owed him after agreeing to a separation deal. LIV has, however, secured a possible $300m (£224.2m) of financing from BC Partners Credit to try to move ahead with the 2027 season.
The rules on both sides of the divide are changing. In December, the PGA Tour rewrote its rules to allow former LIV players, such as Brooks Koepka, to return, subject to certain sanctions. Rory McIlroy said on 13 October that LIV had "wasted" capital, and that he would now vote to welcome back players who had signed with the rival circuit.
The European Tour is taking a harder line. DP World Tour chief executive Guy Kinnings told BBC Sport that players who continue with LIV will not be allowed to be members of the European Tour next season. That is the door Oosthuizen is walking through. He is choosing the tour that has been his home base in Europe, rather than the money-backed circuit that paid him to play.
For fans, the story is less about one player's résumé and more about what happens next. Oosthuizen's Open win in 2010 at St Andrews was the high point of a career that has also brought him runner-up finishes in each of the other three majors. Whether he can carry that form back onto the European Tour at 44 will be the question for 2027.
