Booms lowering on LIV weaklings?

Hard-line relegation, hard-core suspension show risks for under-performing defectors

Ian Poulter, 49, needs to finish lower than his age in LIV standings … or else (David Cannon/Getty Images)

LIV Golf is finally ready to play some reasonable hardball with its under-performing players, but it’s nothing like the unreasonable hardball the PGA Tour is reportedly playing with one of its players who left for LIV.

The Telegraph (UK) reported that all three tri-captains of the moribund Majesticks team — Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Henrik Stenson — are each playing for their individual futures on the breakaway circuit as they face potential relegation if not in the top 48 on the 54-player LIV standings on Aug. 17 at the conclusion of the last two events in Chicago and Indianapolis.

Meanwhile over on the PGA Tour, Sports Illustrated reports that former LIV golfer Hudson Swafford is not eligible to rejoin the PGA Tour before 2027 as he told the Subpar podcast that he was levied a suspension that covers a five-year period from when he first joined LIV in 2022 as a PGA Tour member.

While the line LIV Golf is drawing seems responsive to its hopes for gaining inclusion in the Official World Golf Ranking by embracing more merit-based access, the PGA Tour’s line in the sand regarding the 37-year-old Swafford just seems vindictive.

LIV Golf issued a warning that there will be no reprieve for anyone underperforming, including team captains this year. Last season, Range Goats captain Bubba Watson and Stingers member Branden Grace were each allowed to remain card-carrying LIV members in 2025 despite finishing in the relegation zone in 2024.

It seems that since LIV has recently re-applied for OWGR status, it decided to get serious about shaving off the bottom feeders on the circuit. Poulter ranks 51st in the LIV standings, which is in the “drop zone” if he doesn’t step up and start earning some points this week in Chicago or next week In Indy. Only top-24 individual finishers in each event receive points, and the 49-year-old Englishman has only registered points once this season when he finished T13 in Korea.

At the tail end of the “open zone” — players ranked 25 to 48 who are subject to potential trade or release from their teams — are Westwood (46th) and Stenson (47th). Anyone finishing outside the top 48 in the points standings will lose their card for 2026, regardless of whether they are a team captain or not.

The card-carrying LIV players currently residing in the “drop zone” are Poulter (51), Yubin Jang (52), Mito Pereira (53) and Fredrik Kjettrup (57) along with wild-card players Cheih-Po Lee (49) and Anthony Kim (T55) as well as part-time reserve players Luis Masaveu (50), Young-han Song (54), Wade Ormsby, Ollie Schniederjans, Max Rottluff, John Catlin and Minkyu Kim.

Both Kims, Ormsby, Schniederjans, Rottluff and Catlin have all earned 0.0 points this season.

With Scott O’Neil replacing Greg Norman as CEO, LIV seems more determined to create some player churn which is essential for the league’s credibility and thus potential to join the OWGR system.

If Poulter or any of the other contracted players fail to escape the drop zone, they will have to either finish atop the International Series standings or win the LIV Golf promotions tournament in December to return in 2026. LIV hasn’t announced any other access options for 2026 season.

While it’s not unfeasible for someone of Poulter’s stature to find a home back on the European DP World Tour if he’s bounced from LIV — he, Westwood and Stenson all resigned their DPWT membership two years ago after losing their appeal against the European circuit — the PGA Tour certainly won’t be an option based on how it’s treating Swafford. It would take more than simply paying outstanding fines to reclaim playing privileges on the American tour. It would take years, which players Poulter’s age don’t have the luxury of anymore.

Hudson Swafford faces uncertain tour future after rough LIV experience (Jason Butler/Getty Images)

Swafford — a three-time winner on the PGA Tour who would hope to have some past champions status when eligible — told podcaster Colt Knost that he had hoped to come back to the PGA Tour after sitting out this year. But after some conversation with the PGA Tour, he said that he believes he is being penalized one year for each of the five tournaments he played via LIV Golf in 2022 for which he did not receive a conflicting-events release before he resigned his membership.

“I don’t know how you can come up with a five or five-and-a-half year suspension based on I played five events while the PGA Tour season was going on in ’22 that I wasn’t able to get media releases for,” he said on the Subpar Podcast.

For a player like Eugenio Chacarra, who joined LIV straight out of college before ever joining the PGA Tour, he would be eligible to play on the PGA Tour after sitting out one year once leaving LIV, but it’s apparently more complicated for guys like Swafford who defected and didn’t immediately resign tour membership before playing in LIV events.

“I know some guys who didn’t have any status on the PGA Tour, it’s a hard one-year (suspension), not PGA Tour-sanctioned events, but then you can come back and play.”

Swafford has no idea what the PGA Tour will look like in 2027, with the tour being trimmed to 100 full card holders and field sizes being reduced. Swafford would likely be eligible for very few events in 2027 and would have to try to Monday qualify or wait for the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament late in 2027.

“So I would go ahead and bet and say that the past champions category is pretty much done going forward after this year,” Swafford said. “We can agree or disagree. but it just seems like that and they’ve kind of told me.”

Swafford — who missed most of 2023 on LIV with a hip injury and struggled even when he was healthy enough to play — told the podcast that his decision to go to LIV Golf in 2022 was not an easy choice to make.

“We knew there would be some repercussions,” he said. “Knew I’d be suspended for a little while. Didn’t know how long. There were definitely some unknowns there. I didn’t think (the game) would be this fractured this long, to be honest with you. I don’t think any of us did.

“I still think it needs to come together. I don’t know how it’s going to come together. As a golf fan, you want to see the best playing together. I don’t think this fracture is good for the game. But on the flip side, the PGA Tour needed to be shanked up a bit.”