LIV golfers have been canceled for next season’s PGA Tour with Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau and other rebels saying in an email that they are not complying with traditional event requirements.
- Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau are among a number of LIV golfers who never surrendered their Tour Cards when they left for the Saudi-backed tour
- A letter from the PGA Tour informed them that their membership had been cancelled
- The move comes ahead of the tour’s new season, which begins on September 15
- Mickelson says he shouldn’t get his life membership back after winning 20 championships over the course of his career
After hoping to still be eligible to play on the PGA Tour calendar, defectors from LIV Golf who did not turn in their tour cards were disqualified.
The new PGA Tour season is set to begin in two weeks’ time on September 15, but the likes of Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau will not be allowed to participate.
In a letter from the PGA Tour obtained by Sports IllustratedPlayers who did not resign their membership when leaving for LIV – such as Mickelson, DeChambeau and Pat Perez – have been informed of their cancellation for the 2022-23 season.
The move comes after the Rebels were suspended by the Tour once they had played at the LIV Golf Course event.
The letter, written by Christine Burgess, Tour Vice President, Competition Department, reads: “The terms of your contractual obligations to LIV Golf prevent you from fulfilling the material obligations set out in the Regulations and make clear that you have no intention of doing so, and in fact cannot comply with the membership requirements. On the PGA Tour.
A Tour cannot enter into a Membership Agreement with a Player when it expects, as is the case here, that the Player will not perform the material obligations under that Agreement.
Accordingly, your PGA Tour membership cannot and will not be renewed for the 2022-2023 PGA Tour season.
The PGA Tour (commissioner pictured Jay Monahan) has canceled the membership cards of players who defected to LIV Golf before the new season in two weeks.
Phil Mickelson (left) and Bryson DeChambeau (right) have not officially quit their cards
Mickelson previously stated that his lifetime membership, which he earned by winning at least 20 championships, should not be revoked by joining LIV.
I worked hard to get a lifetime exemption. And I don’t want to give up on that,” Mickelson said at a press conference before LIV’s first event in June.
I don’t think I should. I don’t know what that means for the future but I don’t know what will happen. But I won it and I don’t plan to just give it up.
Pat Perez is among the Saudi rebels who have been told that their cards have been cancelled
Mickelson and Dicambo were among seven players to file a monopoly lawsuit against the PGA Tour, which LIV Golf joined last week.
Some defectors had previously resigned their membership ahead of the inaugural event at the Centurion Club in St Albans, England back in June in anticipation of suspension from the PGA Tour.
Graeme McDowell, Dustin Johnson, Martin Kaymer, Sergio Garcia, Branden Grace, Louis Oosthuizen, Kevin Na, Charles Schwarzl and Lee Westwood are those who have moved to undo the impact of the expected penalties ahead of the LIV opening at Centurion.
A letter from the PGA Tour informs LIV Golf players that they have been suspended after the split’s opening event at the Centurion Club in St Albans, England in June