The First Former LIV Player Is Teeing It Up On The PGA Tour

Golf’s burning question for more than 18 months has been about reunification.

And a part of that reunification is whether LIV players will be allowed back on the PGA Tour.

If they are, what would that look like? Our Alan Shipnuck speculated that select LIV players could be welcomed back to the Tour in 2025 via sponsor exemptions or another mechanism.

While that answer remains cloudy, we do have one piece of new information:

It is, in fact, possible to play on LIV and then come back to compete in a Tour event.

The first player to do so is Laurie Canter, competing in this week’s Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.

Canter has taken a circuitous path

The 35-year-old Englishman played on LIV Golf in 2022, serving as a depth signing.

Canter was the No. 86 player in the world heading into that year—good enough to join LIV on the Cleeks team as they were looking for warm bodies to fill out fields.

Canter made about $3 million in tournament winnings with LIV that first year, finishing 32nd out of the 68 players who teed it up in a LIV event.

The following year, Canter was designated as a reserve player but still made more than $2 million. He then lost in a playoff at the LIV Golf Promotions event in the fall of 2023 and got into just three events the following year. His final LIV event was in Las Vegas in February 2024.

Seeing that he was being pushed out of LIV, Canter sought sanctuary with the DP World Tour. He rejoined that circuit and has been playing some strong golf since including wins at the European Open and Bahrain Championship. More recently, Canter lost a playoff in the South African Open.

The result of that strong play was that Canter’s world ranking improved. He is now No. 42 in the world, the best ranking of his career.

Being in the top 50 of the world makes him exempt for the Players Championship, the flagship tournament of the PGA Tour. If he remains in the top 50 by the end of this month, Canter will also be teeing it up (and maybe eating pimento cheese sandwiches) at the Masters. He is already into the Open Championship based on his DP World Tour standing.

The Tour prohibits non-members who played any LIV events from competing on the Tour for a year past their last LIV event. Canter’s last LIV event was 13 months ago.

He earned his way in based on the route available to him. Now he is slated to play at TPC Sawgrass in a huge event.

While a few LIV players have competed in co-sanctioned tournaments that included the PGA Tour and DP World Tour (the Genesis Scottish Open, for example), this is the first time a former LIV player will be competing in a Tour-only event.

Canter has made history.

What does this mean?

I think it means something that a player can rehabilitate after getting squeezed out of LIV.

Now, this isn’t a Tour card (yet). It’s just one start. However, being in the top 50 of the world opens the door to pretty much anything Canter will want to do in the future.

This rehab ability may become a moot point if the Tour and LIV come to terms before we’re all dead, but it’s still meaningful for the time being.

Canter made out pretty well here, right? He was probably given a relative pay increase to join LIV—on top of the on-course earnings. He made good money and returned to being a top-50 player.

There could be a few players on the fringes of LIV thinking they could return to the Tour and make a living.

Does Canter add any value to the Tour? Not really. But he’s a good player who is better than whoever the last player in the Players Championship field was going to be if Canter wasn’t there.

Some will argue this is more evidence of the OWGR being broken. I won’t say the OWGR is effective—obviously many of the LIV players are horribly misplaced—but Canter is worthy of his ranking. Data Golf has him at No. 58 with only seven LIV players ahead of him. Factoring in his recent wins, I don’t think anyone should have a problem with him breaking into the top 50.

What does it all mean?

Not a ton but Laurie Canter will be a fun trivia answer for hardcore golf nerds.

Top Photo Caption: Laurie Canter has been playing some great golf since leaving LIV. (GETTY IMAGES/Warren Little)