President Donald Trump predicted Thursday that LIV Golf players will eventually return to the PGA Tour, his comments coming hours after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund announced it will end funding of the breakaway league at the end of the 2026 season.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said the sports’ best players belong on the same stage.
“I want to see Rory (McIlroy) playing Bryson DeChambeau. I want to see big Jon Rahm playing Scottie Scheffler,” Trump said. “That’s why the Masters was so good, because you saw everybody together.”
With LIV’s future now in serious doubt, Trump predicted that the players who left for LIV Golf will be back on the PGA Tour.
“They’ll all be back on tour, and it’ll be great,” he said.
He said fans had clearly made their preference known.
“It’s almost like people want to see that, “Trump said of a unified field. “The tour wants to have the best players. You can’t have the best players if they’re boycotting.”
His comments came on the same day as the PIF confirmed it will end its funding of LIV Golf. In a statement, the PIF said the investment required is no longer consistent with the fund’s investment strategy. Saudi Arabia has invested more than $5 billion into the league since its 2022 launch.
The financial pressure on the PIF is not just about golf. The Iran War has compounded Saudi Arabia’s financial situation, with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz cutting Saudi oil exports nearly in half.
Trump acknowledged uncertainty about LIV’s future while stopping short of calling for the tour to fold.
“I don’t know what’s happening with LIV,” Trump said. “I am not sure what’s happening with LIV.”
Trump has financial stakes on both sides of professional golf. The PGA Tour’s Cadillac Championship is currently being played at his Doral course in Miami. LIV is scheduled to play at his Potomac course in Northern Virginia in two weeks.
LIV Golf unveiled a new independent board of directors on April 30 and confirmed it is seeking long-term financial partners to salvage the organization’s future beyond the 2026 season. LIV CEO Scott O’Neil had previously guaranteed that the 2026 season would continue uninterrupted. A tournament in New Orleans scheduled for June 25-28 at Bayou Oaks was postponed just days before the Saudi’s announcement.
The PGA Tour and LIV had been in merger talks in 2023, but the deadline to finalize that framework passed on Dec. 31 of that year and have been stalled since.
Brooks Koepka returned to the PGA Tour in January after four seasons at LIV and Patrick Reed announced he would seek reinstatement for the 2027 season. The window for DeChambeau, Rahm and Cameron Smith to return under the tour’s Returning Member Program expired in February with all three electing to stay with LIV. That program was not expected to be renewed.
For those players who stayed, the road back could be complicated.
Trump said he believes the sport will ultimately be better when all the top players are back on one tour.
“There’s no point” in keeping them separate, he said. “They’re great players.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump predicts LIV Golf players will return to PGA Tour