LIV Golf players have PGA Tour memberships CANCELLED for 2022/23 season
Tour pros who chose not to resign their PGA Tour memberships upon joining LIV Golf, such as Cameron Smith, Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau, have them revoked for 2022-23 season.
Tour pros who decided not to resign their PGA Tour memberships when joining the LIV Golf Tour have received a letter this week informing them that their memberships will not be renewed for the 2022-23 PGA Tour season, according to Sports Illustrated.
That means the likes of new LIV Golf signing Cameron Smith, as well as Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau, will not be allowed to compete on the PGA Tour for at least another season.
Mickelson will no doubt see the news as something of a blow as he previously described how his lifetime membership on the PGA Tour, as a result of having won more than 20 tournaments on the circuit, was rightfully earned and that he held every right to remain on the Tour.
"The terms of your contractual commitments to LIV Golf prohibit you from satisfying the material obligations set forth in the regulations and make clear that you have no intention to, and indeed cannot comply with these requirements of membership in the PGA Tour," read a letter written by Kirsten Burgess of the PGA Tour, which was obtained by Sports Illustrated' Bob Harig.
"The Tour cannot enter into a membership agreement with a player when, as here, it reasonably anticipates 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."
Mickelson spoke exclusively to Harig this week and he certainly ruffled a few feathers with this particular comment about LIV Golf.
The 2022-23 PGA Tour season begins in two weeks' time at the Fortinet Championship in California.
A number of players now on LIV Golf have chosen to resign their PGA Tour cards in recent months, such as former Masters champions Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia.
Following the PGA Tour's latest letter, there will no doubt be plenty more LIV Golf players considering a similar option.
Seven LIV Golf players remain on an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour.
DeChambeau, Mickelson, Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford, Matt Jones, Ian Poulter and Peter Uihlein are the names who remain and now, LIV Golf has officially declared itself an "'interested party".
Two weeks ago, federal judge Beth Labson Freeman (who delivered this brutal line) set a tentative date for "summary judgment" for July 2023.
This, according to reports, is where the Tour will likely try and seek to dismiss the antitrust lawsuit. The actual trial date has been lodged for 8 January 2024.
