Rory McIlroy believes players will start to leave LIV Golf and seek new avenues for their careers after the league recently announced it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Speaking ahead of his defense at the Irish Open, the back-to-back Masters champion stated that the potential influx of golfers from LIV Golf to the DP World Tour could be a positive development for the European circuit, boosting its field strength and improving its tournaments.
“I’m not in their shoes, but LIV at the start looked a lot more attractive than what LIV 2.0 might be from a financial standpoint,” McIlroy said. “I’m not trying to predict the future, but I would predict that you’ll see some guys leave, as they are free to now as, I guess, contracts have been breached by them filing for bankruptcy. I think that means other tours have decisions to make.
“And obviously, there’s a lot of players on LIV that can strengthen golf tournaments and make them more competitive. So I would see that as a good thing for the DP World Tour. And I think the health of the DP World Tour is in a really good spot. They have a wonderful alliance with the PGA Tour. That alliance is only going to get stronger, especially with the PGA Tour committing to working with the DP World Tour for some of these international events at this time of the year going forward.”
Several LIV Golf players like Jon Rahm, Joaquin Niemann, Tyrrell Hatton, Tom McKibbin, Sergio Garcia, David Puig and Laurie Canter are in the field for this week’s Irish Open on the DP World Tour. Rahm is the league’s largest creditor, according to bankruptcy documents; he is owed nearly $7.5 million as of the third quarter of 2026.
The Spaniard and his counterparts have a few options for where to play in 2027, with the DP World Tour being the likeliest benefactor should they move on from LIV Golf. Players could follow in the footsteps of Patrick Reed, who played on the DP World Tour this season ahead of a likely return to the PGA Tour next year.
As for a pathway back — like the one Rahm was offered along with Brooks Koepka, who accepted it at the beginning of the year — the PGA Tour has remained firm in its stance that the pathway closed. (Of course, it could decide to open a different pathway whenever it chooses.)
McIlroy has been adamant that this portion of the DP World Tour schedule is among the best that players and fans will experience all year. After the Irish Open, the DP World Tour holds the BMW PGA Championship before the Open de France, Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, Open de España and DP World India Championship round out the regular season.
From there, the league goes to the United Arab Emirates for two weeks, where a Race to Dubai champion will be crowned. McIlroy is a seven-time Race to Dubai winner, including four straight, but he will have to contend with an unlikely foe this time around as Reed tops the standings thanks to two wins early in the season.
The inclusion of Reed, who chose not to resign with LIV Golf at the onset of the year because of a win on the DP World Tour, has been a welcome sight in Europe, as he chose this path to wait out his PGA Tour suspension and added a layer of drama that other players could not.
“So you have PGA Tour players really with nothing to do for five months in this period,” McIlroy continued. “If they are incorporated or whoever else is incorporated into these tournaments, that makes them more competitive. Overall, with the way things are working out, it’s a very good thing for the golf ecosystem. It only makes these tournaments stronger with more competitive players in them.”