Every now and then, rumors pop up about LIV Golf players regretting their decision and wanting to get back on the PGA Tour.
Whether those rumblings are true or not, the Saudi-backed series just gave Bryson DeChambeau and its other big stars a nudge to ditch the rival tour.
According to Eamon Lynch of GolfWeek, LIV recently informed its players that contract renewals won't include massive bonuses like the ones that came when the league was just getting off the ground.
Players can still earn a ton of money on the course, like the $4 million awarded to the individual champion at every tournament, but the nine-figure guarantees seem to be a thing of the past.
"LIV told its stars that any contract renewals won’t repeat the huge upfront payments that first lured them to the Saudi teat," Lynch writes, "so the earnings gap between the circuits has narrowed significantly, at least for those who are competitively relevant. If all that the PGA Tour wants by way of reunification is the return of the few men who matter, then it can simply wait until they’re contractually free."
For some sought-after players, that day is coming soon.
Dustin Johnson's LIV contract expires this year. DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, and others will have a decision to make in 2026. That decision may have been an easy one if LIV Golf planned on matching the original contracts given to players, but the extensions will be much less lucrative without the huge sign-on bonuses.
LIV Golf's original draw was its ability to offer endless buckets of cash with a less hectic schedule, but that's no longer the case.
Thanks to the Signature Event schedule and increased purses, PGA Tour players can earn more money than ever before. And perhaps that's one of the reasons the planned merger between the two circuits is still no closer to happening than it was when it was announced almost two years ago.
Scottie Scheffler earned a whopping $29.2 million on Tour last season, and that doesn't even include the $25 million he banked for winning the FedEx Cup, the $8 million he earned for coming in first in the Comcast Business top 10 or the $1 million he cashed for winning the unofficial Hero World Challenge. Add it all up, and that's more than $63 million in on-course earnings alone in one year.
The separation between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour in terms of player earnings is rapidly shrinking, and the schedule involves just as much travel.
So far in 2025, LIV players have already flown to Saudi Arabia, Australia, China, Singapore, the United States, Mexico, and South Korea. And those players are contractually obligated to travel to and play in these tournaments unless they're unable to compete.
The honeymoon phase of LIV Golf is on its last legs. We're about to find out soon whether DeChambeau and other stars love the Saudi-backed tour enough to stay, or if they were just in it for the jaw-dropping signing bonuses.