DP World Tour to Refuse LIV Golf Players for 2027 Season, Forcing a Choice

The decision: no more having it both ways

The DP World Tour has drawn a line under golf's civil war. The European circuit will refuse membership to golfers who sign up for LIV Golf in 2027, ending the conditional arrangements that allowed some players to compete on both tours this season.

Chief executive Guy Kinnings confirmed the hardline stance to BBC Sport on Monday. "Players need to make a choice," he said. "We have rules and regulations, which are there to protect our tour and which our members must all abide by. Players who are not willing to comply with our rules and regulations should not be seeking to join our tour."

The ruling means the détente of recent seasons is over. This year the DP World Tour granted conditional status to more than ten LIV golfers, according to ESPN, allowing them to play a limited European schedule. From 2027, that option disappears entirely — and with it, for any European who commits to the breakaway league, the chance to represent the continent at the Ryder Cup.

Why it matters: the Ryder Cup gate

The significance of the decision lies in one eligibility rule: only DP World Tour members can play for Europe in the Ryder Cup. The next contest is scheduled for 17–19 September 2027 at Adare Manor in Ireland, and any European golfer who signs for LIV 2.0 will now be barred from it.

That turns a bureaucratic membership decision into a career-defining ultimatum for some of Europe's biggest names. Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton were the only LIV players on the 2025 European Ryder Cup team, and both have been central figures in the continent's recent successes. Around 15 LIV players currently hold DP World Tour status, including Rahm, Hatton, Victor Perez, Tom McKibbin, Adrian Meronk and David Puig.

The earlier arrangement had been designed precisely to protect that pipeline: the DP World Tour reached agreements with LIV players — including a settlement earlier this year under which Rahm and Hatton paid outstanding fines for competing in the formerly Saudi-backed league, Golf.com reported — in exchange for European Tour eligibility. Those deals applied only to the 2026 season. Now the tour is closing the door.

Questions of eligibility and governance have roiled other sports this season too, as Manchester City's appeal against its financial-charges verdict continues to hang over football. But few rulings carry consequences as immediate as this one: play LIV in 2027, and Adare Manor is off the table.

The bankruptcy backdrop

Kinnings' intervention lands at the most precarious moment in LIV Golf's short history. The breakaway league voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on 8 September after Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund withdrew its multi-billion-dollar funding. Court records put the league's assets at between $100 million and $500 million, with liabilities of $500 million to $1 billion.

Earlier this month, LIV secured a potential $300 million lifeline from BC Partners Credit as part of a restructuring support agreement filed with the US Bankruptcy Court of New Jersey — an initial investment of just $4 million, with the rest conditional on meeting restructuring terms. That deal underpins the league's attempt to relaunch as "LIV 2.0" in 2027.

But the money is contingent on retaining what the restructuring documents call a "critical mass" of players — and the DP World Tour's decision makes that retention materially harder. Every European star who chooses Adare Manor over LIV is one fewer player for the relaunch to build around.

Players at the crossroads

The exodus may already be under way. Last week, Jon Rahm's lawyer revealed at a bankruptcy hearing that the Spanish two-time major champion will not take part in LIV 2.0, saying Rahm and LIV were working to finalise a separation agreement. Sergio Garcia and David Puig have also publicly indicated they are heading for the exit.

Tyrrell Hatton, the other LIV star of the 2025 European Ryder Cup side, has not publicly announced his intentions for 2027 — though he dismissed suggestions after the season-ending event in Indiana earlier this year that he was on his way out. His decision now becomes one of the most consequential in the sport.

Elsewhere, The Telegraph reported that Bryson DeChambeau was exploring his options with the DP World Tour — but the new rule would force the American to choose a side as well. Joaquin Niemann does not currently hold DP World Tour status, though he could theoretically receive tournament invitations — provided he does not sign up for LIV 2.0.

The deadlines

The calendar now does the talking. LIV players face a 25 October deadline to commit to the league's future, a date BC Partners extended to satisfy the requirements of the court-supervised restructuring, Golfweek reported. Players must apply for DP World Tour membership by 16 November.

In practice, the two dates compress into a single window in which the biggest names in European golf must declare their allegiance. Kinnings' message is that there will be no fudge: declare for LIV, and DP World Tour membership — with all its Ryder Cup consequences — is gone. Follow the countdown to both deadlines in Verity's sports coverage, with the latest headlines on the homepage.

An endgame for the split?

For four years, professional golf has lived with an uneasy split between the established tours and the Saudi-backed upstart. The DP World Tour's decision, combined with LIV's bankruptcy proceedings, suggests that era is ending — not with a merger, but with the two sides finally forcing the separation they have long threatened.

Whether LIV 2.0 can survive the twin blows of its funding collapse and the loss of European eligibility is now the central question in the sport, as USA Today noted. As the wider sports world watches the deadlines approach, one thing is clear: in 2027, golfers will have to pick a side. The choice, as Guy Kinnings put it, is theirs to make.

Jon Rahm in action at the Ryder Cup in Europe colours

Bryan Berlin / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0