A look at the timeline of events that led to LIV Golf’s creation, to where things now stand with the circuit:
January 2020: The format for a proposed new Premier Golf League is solidified: 48 players comprising 12 four-man teams, 54-hole events, no cut, shotgun start; huge purses. All of these are eventually adopted by LIV Golf when it begins play in 2022. … World Golf Club, based in the United Kingdom, and the Raine Group, a global merchant bank, are partners in the endeavor, which also included up to 60 shareholders including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). … PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan informs Tour pros that they’ll not be permitted to play on both the PGA and PGL circuits.
March 2020: The PGA Tour signs a new $700 million media rights deal as PGL tries to lure big names away from the Tour. Rory McIlroy raises concerns about the Premier Golf League and its financial backers: “I didn’t really like where the money was coming from,” he says. “I wanted to be the first one to speak out against it. I’m glad that I have.”
November 2020: The DP World Tour and the PGA Tour announce a strategic alliance, and will collaborate on global scheduling, prize money and playing privileges for both tours’ memberships.
April 2021: News is released that the PGA Tour has launched a Player Impact Program, with the goal of rewarding players who bring the most value to the tour with bonuses. The lucrative bonus structure will reward golf’s biggest stars regardless of how they perform on the course.
September 2021: The Asian Tour announces a partnership with the Saudi International, previously a DP World Tour-sanctioned event.
October 2021: LIV Golf Investments names Greg Norman CEO; makes a $200 million commitment to the Asian Tour (and increased that to $300 million in Feb. 2022). This announcement did not create the LIV Golf tournaments as they would become, but merely established a new 10-event series within the Asian Tour umbrella, although the wording of the release suggested a more ambitious vision for the future. … The Public Investment Fund, which operates on behalf of the government of Saudi Arabia and ranks as one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, is the majority shareholder in LIV Golf Investments.
Nov. 21, 2021: The PGA Tour reveals massive purse increases for 2022.
Feb. 2, 2022: Phil Mickelson, in Saudi Arabia to compete at the Saudi International, rips the PGA Tour in interview with Golf Digest, saying, “the tour’s obnoxious greed has really opened the door for opportunities elsewhere.”
Feb. 17, 2022: Writer Alan Shipnuck releases details of a conversation he had with Mickelson in November, in which Mickelson told Shipnuck he helped LIV Golf Investments draft their new league’s operating agreement. According to the details released by Shipnuck, Mickelson also referred to the Saudis as “scary motherf---ers,” but said that despite their poor human rights record, “the Saudi money has finally given us that leverage [over the PGA Tour].”
Feb. 22, 2022: Mickelson releases a six-paragraph statement on Twitter announcing he will be taking time away from the game. In the statement, Mickelson apologized to LIV Golf/the Saudis but did not mention the PGA Tour by name. In the subsequent days, Mickelson’s sponsors either paused or ended their relationships with him. Also on Feb. 22, PGA Tour commissioner Monahan holds a previously scheduled mandatory players-only meeting, in which he reportedly tells players they would not be able to compete on the PGA Tour if they defected to the Saudi league.
Feb. 24, 2022: Norman writes a letter to Monahan questioning the legality of a potential lifetime ban administered to any PGA Tour player who were to defect to a rival tour.
March 8, 2022: At The Players Championship, Monahan says that the PGA Tour is “moving on” from the conversation surrounding other potential tours and that “we always will be focused on legacy, not leverage.”
March 16, 2022: LIV Golf Investments announces an 8-event, $255 million invitational series for 2022 beginning on June 9 at Centurion Club in England. These events are not the Asian Tour international series events announced in October 2021 when Norman became CEO of LIV Golf, but a new standalone circuit of tournaments.
May 31, 2022: After the PGA Tour denies players conflicting-event releases, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia and Louis Oosthuizen are among several members who enter LIV’s first event in London anyway.
June 2022: Several big-name PGA Tour players join LIV Golf at different times during the month. Among them are Johnson, Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Graeme McDowell, Garcia, Ian Poulter, Kevin Na, Lee Westwood, Oosthuizen, Martin Kaymer, Charl Schwartzel and Talor Gooch.
June 7, 2022: Monahan sends a memo to PGA Tour members saying “players competing this week without releases are suspended or otherwise no longer eligible to participate in PGA Tour tournament play, including the Presidents Cup.”
June 9, 2022: The first LIV Golf event begins outside London and the PGA Tour suspends the 17 members who are competing there.
June 11, 2022: Schwartzel becomes the first player to win a LIV event, earning the $4 million first-place prize, while his team, Stinger GC, takes the team title.
July 4, 2022: Sport Resolutions in the United Kingdom issued a stay of the suspensions the DP World Tour levied against players after they competed in LIV’s inaugural event allowing them to compete on Tour until a hearing, scheduled for February 2023 is conducted.
July 6, 2022: LIV Golf submits an application for inclusion on the Official World Golf Ranking, examination of which, the OWGR says, “will now commence.”
July 26, 2022: The PGA Tour creates a “FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List” to determine eligibility for the FedExCup Playoffs and the 2022-23 season. All suspended LIV players were removed from this new list.
Aug. 3, 2022: Eleven LIV golfers file an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour, alleging unlawful monopoly and restraint of trade. The suit, titled “Mickelson et al. v. PGA Tour,” and filed in a U.S. District court in California, is originally set for a September 2023 trial. … Three of the players (Gooch, Matt Jones and Hudson Swafford) also seek a temporary restraining order to compete in the FedExCup Playoffs. The parties in the suit have since undergone significant change as some players have removed themselves from the litigation.
Aug. 8, 2022: In a 32-page response, the PGA Tour replies to the temporary restraining order plaintiffs seeking to play in the FedExCup Playoffs, saying “TRO Plaintiffs have waited nearly two months to seek relief from the Court, fabricating an ‘emergency’ they now maintain requires immediate action.”
Aug. 9, 2022: A California judge denies the request of LIV golfers Gooch, Swafford and Jones for a temporary restraining order that would have allowed them to compete in the Tour’s playoffs.
Aug. 24, 2022: Prior to the Tour Championship, Monahan announces sweeping changes to the Tour’s schedule and structure, including dramatic purse and bonus increases through the implementation of a series of “designated tournaments,” guaranteeing top players would appear together more often.
Aug. 30, 2022: Cam Smith, the winner of the 2022 Players Championship and the 2022 Open, joins LIV Golf. Also joining are Joaquin Niemann, Marc Leishman, Harold Varner III, Cameron Tringale and Anirban Lahiri.
Oct. 6, 2022: LIV Golf announces a “strategic partnership” with the MENA Tour in an effort to start earning immediate world ranking points. The OWGR posts a statement on its website saying, “Notice of these changes given by the MENA Tour is insufficient to allow OWGR to conduct the customary necessary review” ahead of upcoming LIV tournaments, and thus LIV events would not be awarded ranking points until a “review is complete.” OWGR officials would not be specific on how long a review would take, only saying it was “underway.”
Oct. 21, 2022: The PGA Tour files a lawsuit against Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and its governor, Yasir Othman Al-Rumayyan, in New York. The lawsuit does not directly go after the LIV Golf organization, it targets the funding source that has been used to entice former PGA Tour players to join LIV Golf through signing bonuses and lucrative prize purses.
Oct. 30, 2022: The final event of the first LIV Golf season, the circuit’s team championship, concludes at Doral in Miami.
Nov. 15, 2022: McIlroy, speaking at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, says that relations between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf can only improve if Norman is no longer involved with LIV.
Nov. 22, 2022: Saudi Arabia’s $676 billion sovereign wealth fund argued it has sovereign immunity and can’t be forced to provide evidence in a U.S. legal fight between PGA Tour Inc., and LIV Golf. The Public Investment Fund and its Governor, Al-Rumayyan, asked a federal judge in California to quash a request by the PGA Tour to compel their testimony and produce documents for a lawsuit accusing LIV of unfair competition for offering players lucrative deals to break their PGA Tour contracts.
Dec. 20, 2022: Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley announces in a statement that the invitation criteria for the 2023 Masters will not change, and all eligible players will be invited to play.
Jan. 23, 2023: LIV Golf announces a 14-event schedule for 2023.
Jan. 25, 2023: The PGA Tour files a motion to add the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and its governor to its counterclaim lawsuit against LIV Golf for interfering with its contracts with players who joined the new league.
Feb. 6, 2023: An arbitration hearing to determine the fate of LIV Golf players who want to continue to play on the DP World Tour is heard at the Sports Resolutions Arbitration and Media Centre in London. DP World Tour media officer Scott Crockett said the independent, three-member panel would deliver their verdict “several weeks” after the five-day hearing has taken place.
Feb. 9, 2023: The USGA publishes its criteria for U.S. Open eligibility and requires Tour eligibility for exemptions involving the Tour Championship, the FedExCup standings, the Korn Ferry Tour standings and the DP World Tour standings. In such categories, the USGA says that players “must be considered eligible per PGA Tour regulations (or be in DP World Tour membership) at the time the exemption is determined to qualify for the exemption.”
Feb. 16, 2023: A federal judge ruled the head of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the financial back of LIV Golf, must sit for depositions and produce documents in LIV Golf’s antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. Lawyers for the PIF and its governor, Yasir al-Rumayyan, had sought to quash subpoenas claiming sovereign immunity. Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen, in the U.S. District Court of Northern District of California, rejected the argument in an order that was made Feb. 9, but which remained under seal as LIV and the PGA Tour fought over proposed redactions of confidential information. A redacted copy of the order was included in a filing.
Feb. 24, 2023: The first LIV Golf event of 2023 begins at Mayakoba Resort in Mexico.
April 4, 2023: The DP World Tour wins its arbitration case against LIV Golf. By winning the case, the £100,000 fines and suspensions originally imposed for players playing in the 2022 LIV London event have been upheld. More significantly, the DP World Tour can now impose further fines and sanctions every time a LIV player competes in a conflicting event without obtaining a release from the DP World Tour.
April 9, 2023: LIV Golf members Koepka and Mickelson finish T-2 in the Masters.
June 6, 2023: The Public Investment Fund, the PGA Tour, and the DP World Tour, in a “framework agreement,” announce that they would end all litigation and form a new entity to serve the best interests of all.
Aug. 6, 2023: DeChambeau shoots a final-round, 12-under 58 to win at Greenbrier.
Oct. 10, 2023: The Official World Golf Ranking rejects LIV’s application to receive OWGR points.
Oct. 15, 2023: Gooch, who won three times during the season, wins the LIV individual title over Cameron Smith and Koepka.
Oct. 22, 2023: The LIV team championship is won by Crushers GC, captained by DeChambeau.
Nov. 15, 2023: Terms of the June “merger” between the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour, and LIV Golf have not proceeded as planned, and LIV announces plans to continue into 2024.
Dec. 7, 2023: After more than a year of voicing his dislike for LIV Golf’s 54-hole tournaments, lack of cuts, and shotgun starts, Jon Rahm stuns the PGA Tour by signing a contract with LIV Golf estimated at more than $300 million.
Jan. 30, 2024: After starting the season as a PGA Tour member, Tyrrell Hatton leaves for LIV Golf . He joins Rahm’s Legion XIII team.
Feb. 2, 2024: LIV’s 2024 season starts in Mexico with Niemann winning his first LIV title.
Feb. 28, 2024: Anthony Kim, who hasn’t made a competitive start since 2012, signs with LIV as a wild-card player for the remainder of the season. He makes his debut the next day in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and shoots 76.
March 5, 2024: Norman informs players that the league has withdrawn its application for world-ranking points.
March 18, 2024: Members of the PGA Tour Enterprises board, including Woods, meet in person with Al-Rumayyan in the Bahamas.
June 8, 2024: Rahm withdraws during the second round of LIV Houston with a left-foot infection. Three days later, he pulls out ahead of the U.S. Open at Pinehurst.
Aug. 11, 2024: McDowell is suspended for one tournament after violating LIV’s anti-doping policy. According to McDowell, he took a “generic Vicks nasal decongestant” prior to LIV Nashville.
Sept. 15, 2024: Rahm wins the LIV points title at the final individual event of the year. The following week, Rahm withdraws due to severe flu-like symptoms and Smith’s Ripper GC win the LIV Team Championship.
Oct. 16, 2024: Sports Business Journal reports that PIF has hired a London-based firm to find a new chief executive officer to replace Norman.
Oct. 24, 2024: LIV announces it will reduce the number of players who earn spots via its Promotions event from three to one, and two months later, Chieh-po Lee earns that spot.
Dec. 20, 2024: Frederik Kjettrup, a 24-year-old Danish product out of Florida State who earlier in the month withdrew from PGA Tour Q-School’s final stage, signs with Cleeks GC. He would be relegated after just one season.
Jan. 10, 2025: Former LIV player Eugenio Chacarra speaks out in frustration after not being renewed by Fireballs GC: “When I joined LIV, they promised OWGR [points] and majors. But it didn’t happen. I trusted them. ... On LIV, nothing changes; there is only money.”
Jan. 15, 2025: Scott O’Neil named new CEO of LIV Golf, ending Norman’s three-year run at the helm.
Jan. 16, 2025: LIV inks multi-year agreement with Fox Sports with a plan for nearly all of the 210 hours of competition to air live.
Jan. 29, 2025: Northern Ireland’s Tom McKibbin, a protégé of McIlroy, who had earned his PGA Tour card in November 2024, bolts the tour for LIV Golf.
Feb. 4, 2025: Adam Scott joins Monahan at the White House for a meeting with President Donald Trump to discuss “the future of men’s professional golf.” Scott says the meeting lasted about 40 minutes in the Oval Office and was a “really positive” step for the Tour in its ongoing negotiations with the PIF. Later this month, another White House meeting is held, this time with Woods and Al-Rumayyan included.
Feb. 5, 2025: One day before LIV Golf is to start its 2025 season in Saudi Arabia, the USGA announces an exemption into the U.S. Open for the LIV points leader not already exempt. … One week later, the R&A announces it will give the leading LIV player not already exempt an exemption into The Open as well.
March 5, 2025: DeChambeau says, “I continue to see LIV Golf growing. It’s going to grow at an exponentiating pace for years to come, and we aren’t going anywhere.”
April 17, 2025: Wesley Bryan confirms he’s been suspended by the PGA Tour for recently participating in a made-for-YouTube match featuring both influencers and LIV Golf members.
June 4, 2025: U.S. Amateur champion Josele Ballester joins Fireballs GC after wrapping college career at Arizona State.
June 27, 2025: New PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp holds a town-hall meeting at the Rocket Classic and informs players that the Tour and PIF were “at loggerheads with no resolution in sight,” according to a Golfweek report. About a month later, Scott confirms that there is “not much happening” with those negotiations.
July 11, 2025: It’s announced that LIV has reapplied for Official World Golf Ranking points.
Aug. 15, 2025: Sebastian Munoz cards the third sub-60 score in LIV history, shooting 59 with a double bogey.
Aug. 20, 2025: Rolapp shares ahead of the Tour Championship that he has not spoken to any PIF representatives, adding, “the best collection of golfers in the world are on the PGA Tour.”
Aug. 27, 2025: LIV adds tournament in New Orleans for 2026 after Louisiana agrees to pay the tour $5 million and spend an additional $2.2 million on improvements to the Bayou Oaks course in City Park.
Nov. 4, 2025: LIV announces it will move to 72-hole competitions in 2026.
Dec. 1, 2025: Laurie Canter relinquishes 2026 PGA Tour card via DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai to rejoin LIV, this time with Majesticks GC.
Dec. 23, 2025: Koepka announces that he’s leaving LIV after four seasons. A few weeks later, he formally reapplies to the PGA Tour.
Jan. 12, 2026: PGA Tour announces Returning Member Program based on “elite-performance based criteria.” This paves the way back for specific LIV players, including Koepka. Koepka, though, is the only one of the four eligible players (DeChambeau, Smith, Rahm) to take advantage.
Jan. 20, 2026: Reigning NCAA individual champion Michael La Sasso signs with HyFlyers GC, leaving his Ole Miss team midseason and forfeiting his Masters invitation.
Jan. 28, 2026: The PGA Tour announces that Reed, who opts not to resign with LIV, will rejoin the Tour in 2027 as a past champion. In the interim, Reed commits to the DP World Tour for the remainder of the year, in which he wins twice early.
Feb. 3, 2026: The Official World Golf Ranking announces it will start awarding points to LIV events, though with some caveats: Only the top 10 finishers at each LIV event will receive points and the field rating for each tournament will roughly be the same as opposite-field events on the PGA Tour.
Feb. 15, 2026: In one of the most memorable moments in LIV history, Anthony Kim wins LIV Adelaide by three shots with a final-round, 9-under 63. It marks Kim’s first worldwide victory since the 2010 Shell Houston Open.
Feb. 21, 2026: DP World Tour announces that eight members have been granted conditional releases to play LIV events in 2026 without being subjected to the conflicting event rules. This is provided that those players pay all outstanding fines for past violations and participate in stipulated DP World Tour tournaments and media activities and withdraw any appeals for past violations. Rahm isn’t among those players and later says the deal was “extorting players.”
March 20, 2026: Rahm withdraws appeal of the fines he has accumulated from the DP World Tour, a bill he says exceeds $3 million, but he still doesn’t agree to deal with DP World Tour, putting his Ryder Cup status in doubt.
April 15, 2026: With rumors swirling about the league’s future and a report from the Telegraph saying LIV executives held an emergency meeting Tuesday in Manhattan ahead of a “seismic” announcement, the circuit’s event in Mexico remained on schedule for a Thursday start. Later in the day, the Financial Times reports that the PIF is on the verge of cutting support for LIV Golf and that official word could come as soon as Thursday.
