Justin Rose had been among the players LIV Golf pursued when the Saudi-funded circuit made its debut in 2022. Having once held the world number one ranking and claimed a major title, his results began to slip as his career moved into its later stages. The roster of established names LIV assembled carried a clear commercial purpose: drawing wider audiences through the pull of recognised talent.
Speaking to reporters after his Farmers Insurance Open win on Sunday, Rose explained that access to both the European Tour and the PGA Tour — along with the high-calibre players those circuits attract — had long formed the backbone of what he wanted from his career, and that the breakaway league did not offer those same pathways. His drive, he noted, is rooted in an ongoing pursuit that pushes him forward. The remaining routes, while technically available, drew little to no genuine interest from him. The goals he had set out at the start of his career remained out of reach throughout that period.
Rose stated that his younger self would not have been at peace with abandoning those aspirations. He went on to claim two further PGA Tour titles and came close at the 2024 Open Championship, the 2025 Masters, and the 2026 Masters.
More than four years after LIV Golf entered the sport, the tour now finds itself navigating bankruptcy proceedings as it pursues a restructured identity under the LIV 2.0 banner, no longer drawing on Saudi Arabian financial support. Jon Rahm and a number of fellow competitors have walked away from the breakaway circuit, with a return to their former tours on the agenda. Rahm and a number of fellow LIV Golf players are understood to be targeting DP World Tour appearances in 2027, with a broader return to the PGA Tour anticipated once the governing bodies reach a decision on how to handle those who left.
Rory McIlroy, who had been among the most prominent voices on the PGA Tour during the dispute between the tour and its breakaway rivals, has expressed no objection to those players returning. Rose shared a similar view, telling reporters at the DP World India Championship in New Delhi that Rahm's departure from LIV would serve the established tours — the DP World Tour in the near term and the PGA Tour over a longer horizon — while adding that Rahm was not alone in that position. Rose noted that many players at that level had navigated comparable circumstances.
Rose described the period spanning roughly four to five years as functioning more as a trial run than a settled course. He expressed that no ill will was held on his end and that the door stood open to all. Rose also argued that routine competition against the world's top-ranked players strengthens the sport as a whole.
Rose observed that the upheaval across professional golf had ultimately worked in favour of every player, regardless of which path they chose, and that the sport's attention should now turn toward what lies ahead, adding that the PGA Tour and DP World Tour had each been pushed to develop into stronger versions of what they were before.
At the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi, McIlroy told attendees that LIV Golf had operated on roughly half of a workable concept yet carried it out poorly, arguing that the organisation's substantial financial resources were deployed without the strategic focus needed to build partnerships with golf's governing bodies — money that instead flowed largely to tour professionals who were already earning at the top of the sport. He also noted that he and Tiger Woods had been among the most outspoken voices against the breakaway circuit from its 2022 launch, partly because both stood to lose more than most in terms of their standing within the PGA Tour, and that a shared belief the venture would fracture the game had driven their position.
McIlroy acknowledged that each party involved seeks to advance its own position while also bearing some responsibility toward the broader health of the sport — a tension that continues to play out as LIV's insolvency proceedings work their way through the legal system. He also noted that parties with direct interests in the outcome had their own calculations to weigh, and that as TGL prepared to launch, the competing circuit was widely seen as a potential drain on its player pool — an assessment he said carried merit, since TGL eligibility was tied to active PGA Tour membership and a number of golfers had already made the switch to LIV by that point.
In court filings submitted Wednesday, LIV's legal representatives indicated that a ruling on the league's future — whether it would cease operations or move ahead with a follow-on version — was anticipated before the end of the month. McIlroy observed that the outlook for any such continuation had grown less certain, citing a rising number of former LIV players who had stated they would not return. Exiting Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and resuming normal operations will present the organisation with considerable obstacles.
No defined pathway back to the PGA Tour currently exists for Rahm and others who moved to LIV Golf. No timeline, pathway, or conditions for their reinstatement have been put forward by PGA Tour chief executive Brian Rolapp. According to Rolapp, the Returning Member Program — the pathway through which Brooks Koepka rejoined the tour — is now off the table, with no discussions underway to bring it back. Rolapp added that the PGA Tour would require demonstrable proof that any player seeking to return carries no binding obligations to LIV Golf before those discussions could begin.
Contractual ties with Rahm, Sergio Garcia, and a number of other players have been severed, with those golfers set to take part in DP World Tour competition from 2027 onward. Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson, whose contracts were also terminated, have yet to announce where they will play going forward. McIlroy argued that welcoming such players back would serve the financial interests of the tours, drawing on the view that broader participation tends to benefit everyone involved.
