{"id":24575,"date":"2026-01-14T08:03:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T08:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/liv-golf-jon-rahm-bryson-dechambeau-and-cam-smith-opt-against-pga-tour-return\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T08:03:49","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T08:03:49","slug":"liv-golf-jon-rahm-bryson-dechambeau-and-cam-smith-opt-against-pga-tour-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/liv-golf-jon-rahm-bryson-dechambeau-and-cam-smith-opt-against-pga-tour-return\/","title":{"rendered":"LIV Golf: Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Cam Smith opt against PGA Tour return"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Cam Smith have all indicated they will remain with LIV Golf rather than rejoining the PGA Tour.<\/b><\/p>\n

Five-time major winner Brooks Koepka was recently accepted back on the American circuit after he quit the Saudi Arabian-backed series to prioritise “the needs of his family”. <\/p>\n

The PGA Tour subsequently opened the door<\/a> for fellow major winners Rahm, DeChambeau and Smith to follow Koepka under a new returning member programme, open until 2 February.<\/p>\n

But the trio have since quashed the prospect of a return at a news conference for LIV Golf captains.<\/p>\n

Rahm, 31, said he “wished Brooks the best” but was “not planning to go anywhere”.<\/p>\n

“As far as I’m concerned, I’m focused on LIV for this year and hoping my team can repeat as champs,” said the Spaniard.<\/p>\n

American DeChambeau said he was “contracted through 2026” and “was so excited about this year” while fellow 32-year-old Smith of Australia added that he had “made a decision” and will “be on LIV for years to come”.<\/p>\n

Only players who have been away from the PGA Tour for at least two years and have won The Players Championship or a major between 2022-25 were eligible to return under the terms of the PGA Tour initiative.<\/p>\n

That meant Rahm, DeChambeau and Smith were the only LIV players able to consider a move, with Phil Mickelson ruled out because he won the last of his six majors at the 2021 US PGA Championship.<\/p>\n

PGA Tour chief executive Brian Rolapp outlined that programme would be only open for the 2026 campaign and was in “response to a unique set of circumstances”.<\/p>\n

“This is a one-time, defined window and does not set a precedent for future situations,” Rolapp said in an open letter.<\/p>\n

“Once the door closes, there is no promise that this path will be available again.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Cam Smith have all indicated they will remain with LIV Golf rather than rejoining the PGA Tour. Five-time major winner Brooks Koepka was recently accepted back on the American circuit after he quit the Saudi Arabian-backed series to prioritise “the needs of his family”. The PGA Tour subsequently opened the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24577,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24575\/revisions\/24577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}