The walls are closing in on LIV Golf, and the players who gambled their careers on it are now quietly knocking on the door they once walked out of. With Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund reportedly set to withdraw its financial backing from LIV Golf after 2026, representatives for multiple LIV players have already contacted the PGA Tour to explore a potential return.

The conversations are real, sources say, but the welcome mat is anything but warm. The PGA Tour had offered a formal pathway earlier this year through its “Returning Member Program,” a performance-based route designed for players who had been away from the tour for at least two years and had won a major or The Players Championship between 2022 and 2025.

Beyond Brooks Koepka, who announced his departure from LIV in January, only three players qualified: Cam Smith, Jon Rahm, and Bryson DeChambeau. The window closed on February 2. All three passed. It is not expected to be renewed, according to Sports Business Journal.

“The situation is different now.” Players hoping for even the more modest arrangement Patrick Reed received, a one-year ban tied to his last LIV appearance, may find that option unavailable, too. Complicating matters further, LIV players left the tour for various reasons.

Some resigned their memberships; others simply vanished without formally doing so. The tour intends to sort returning players into distinct categories accordingly. The eleven players who joined an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour, including DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Talor Gooch, and Ian Poulter, are expected to face the steepest scrutiny.

Resentment over that litigation has not faded. “I don’t necessarily have scar tissue, but there are plenty of people around our tour who do,” PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp told the Wall Street Journal. “It has to be accounted for in some shape or form.” The two most consequential cases are Rahm and DeChambeau. Rahm’s departure at the end of 2023 is widely viewed inside the tour as having extended the conflict by a year.

He crossed over just as LIV was faltering, giving the Saudi circuit a credibility boost it was running out of time to manufacture. His DP World Tour reinstatement remains unresolved, clouding his 2027 Ryder Cup eligibility. At Augusta, he was unapologetic and showed no sign of softening. DeChambeau’s situation is murkier still.

His representatives reportedly approached LIV about a new deal before the Masters, seeking a figure well above Rahm’s reported $300 million contract. LIV did not engage. His current deal runs through year’s end, and his future remains publicly unresolved. For both men and many others on the LIV roster, the window may be narrowing faster than they anticipated on terms they no longer get to set.