Tour pro confronts latest LIV Golf signing: "I just want to pick you up on that"

English tour pro Eddie Pepperell says it would be "an injustice" for the DP World Tour to fully open its doors to LIV Golf players while the same isn't happening in the other direction. 

Pepperell made the claim in the most recent edition of The Chipping Forecast where he discussed Laurie Canter's recent decision to give up a PGA Tour card in favour of a return to the PIF-backed LIV Golf. 

His good friend Canter, 36, finished seventh on the DP World Tour in 2025 which earned him a spot on next year's PGA Tour via the Race to Dubai rankings. 

But he opted against duel membership, instead taking up "a really great offer" to link up with Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Sam Horsfield on the Majesticks team. 

Canter's move was made official 15 days after three-time DP World Tour winner Victor Perez was announced as the first LIV player signing ahead of the 2026 campaign. 

He stressed last week in an interview with The Times of London that he will remain a member of Europe's top circuit and will pay the fines he will rack up out of his own pocket if he has to. 

Canter further explained his rationale behind the switch during an appearance on The Chipping Forecast where his good friend Pepperrell scrutinised some of his comments. 

"Ultimately, without being crude about it, I got a really great offer – great opportunity to go," Canter told the pod. 

"So when you look at that, and as I see it, hopefully the ability to keep playing the tournaments in Europe that I kind of resonate with, that was the big part of the decision-making process."

Pepperell told Canter that it's a door that "goes only one way". 

"If you go to LIV and take the money, you can still, somehow, at the moment, have access to play in the DP World Tour, but it doesn’t seem to work the other way," he said. 

"So there's a bit of an imbalance about things at the moment."

Canter said it would be in the interests of the DP World Tour to get the best fields they could possibly get. 

"Whether I was a member or not, Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton – those are the guys that put bums on seats. 

"Bryson DeChambeau… Dustin Johnson playing the Dubai Desert Classic… I'm in that camp. To have the best people playing, that benefits everyone.

"I think a great result for the DP World Tour, if we're talking about LIV, would be to potentially not just have Jon Rahm come and play a couple of events where he can play, it would be to have Jon Rahm fight Rory McIlroy for the Race to Dubai"

Pepperell disagreed, describing it as an injustice. 

"I just want to pick you up on that, because I do disagree," he said. 

"Until there is access that is even remotely equivalent between tours, the DP World Tour cannot afford to just open their doors up to LIV players. 

"Fundamentally, it can't, because there's an injustice inherent within that. 

"And I’m not talking about the Jon Rahms and the Bryson DeChambeaus – I'm talking about the Brendan Steeles, the Cameron Tringales, the Kevin Nas. The people who offer little to no value to any field in which they play, with all due respect. 

"You cannot have a situation where the DP World Tour is just opening their doors up to LIV golfers while the same isn't happening in the other direction."

A potential solution?

In recent weeks there has been plenty of speculation that the DP World Tour is exploring an arrangement with LIV Golf's backers. 

That is because the appeal hearing concerning Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton is yet to be heard. 

Both golfers were sanctioned and suspended by the DP World Tour for competing in LIV Golf events without tournament releases. 

But they both appealed, allowing them to represent Europe in September's Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. 

It is understood that the appeal hearing may be heard next April, but the general consensus is that there appeal will be unsuccessful. 

LIV Golf's chief executive, Scott O'Neil, confirmed to Telegraph Sport last week that the breakaway tour is working with the DP World Tour to remove the uncertainty over the pair's Ryder Cup eligibility. 

What that looks like remains to be seen. 

Pepperell, though, has suggested that the DP World Tour and LIV Golf need each other. 

"If we're seriously going to consider what a DP World Tour-LIV merger would look like, I actually think there isn’t a better time than now for the DP World Tour to explore this," he said. 

"But it doesn't matter who LIV fills its fields with, it's not going to succeed as a product. 

"It might have the bodywork of a Ferrari, but it's got the engine of a Ford, and that isn't going to change, no matter how many stars you sign, whereas the DP World Tour does have something a bit different."

Canter was less optimistic about an arrangement between the DP World Tour and LIV given the former's relationship with the PGA Tour. 

"I don't disagree fundamentally with a lot of your point around how it might make sense, but the DP World Tour has quite strict criteria about how to get into their tournaments, so the idea that LIV guys could, at will, cruise in and cruise out isn't right. 

"The guys who've got exemption criteria and have standing on the tour to play, I think it's just maybe protecting their right to play, which, to me, benefits the DP World Tour."

He added: "Guys like Dustin or Brooks, who've played a few at the end of the year. Obviously Jon, Tyrrell, the guys who have exemptions, who are, I would say, commercially relevant and important to to the world of golf. 

"And I think the DP World Tour has those players because they have those exemption criteria, or they were or are still members of the Tour.

"You don't need to carve out additional spots for players who play on LIV, it's just, if the opportunity presents itself and they're exempt to do it, then let them do it."