LIV Golfers ‘have next season’s PGA Tour memberships CANCELED with Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau and other rebels told in email that they do not comply with traditional event’s requirements’
- Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau are among a number of LIV Golfers who never turned in their tour cards when they left for the Saudi-backed tour
- A letter from the PGA Tour informed them their memberships were revoked
- The move comes ahead of the Tour’s new season, which starts on September 15
- Mickelson says his lifetime membership should not be taken back after he won 20 tournaments over the course of his career
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After hoping to remain eligible to play on the PGA Tour calendar, the LIV Golf defectors who hadn’t turned in their tour cards have had them revoked.
The PGA Tour’s new season is due to start in two weeks’ time on September 15 but the likes of Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau will not be allowed to tee it up.
In a letter from the PGA Tour obtained by Sports Illustrated, players who hadn’t resigned their membership when leaving for LIV – such as Mickelson, DeChambeau, and Pat Perez – were informed their memberships had been revoked for the 2022-23 season.
The move comes after rebels have been suspended by the Tour as soon as they have played in an event of the LIV Golf circuit.
The letter written by Kirsten Burgess, the Tour’s vice president, competition administration, read: ‘The terms of your contractual commitments to LIV Golf prohibit you from satisfying the material obligations set forth in the regulations and make clear that you have no intention to, and indeed cannot comply with these requirements of membership in the PGA Tour.
‘The Tour cannot enter into a membership agreement with a player when, as here, it reasonably anticipates the player will not perform the material obligations under that agreement.
‘Accordingly, your PGA Tour membership cannot and will not be renewed for the 2022-2023 PGA TOUR season.’
The PGA Tour (pictured commissioner Jay Monahan) has revoked the membership cards of players who have defected to LIV Golf ahead of the new season in two weeks
Phil Mickelson (left) and Bryson DeChambeau (right) never officially resigned their cards
Mickelson has previously stated that his lifetime membership, which he earned by winning a minimum of 20 tournaments, should not be revoked by joining LIV.
‘I’ve worked really hard to earn a lifetime exemption. And I don’t want to give that up,’ Mickelson said at a news conference ahead of LIV’s first event back in June.
‘I don’t believe I should have to. I don’t know what that means for the future but I don’t know what’s going to happen. But I’ve earned that and I don’t plan on just giving it up.”
Pat Perez is among the Saudi rebels who have been informed their cards have been revoked
Mickelson and DeChambeau have filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour, which was joined by LIV Golf last week.
Some defectors resigned their membership ahead of the inaugural event at the centurion Club in St Albans, England in anticipation of suspension from the PGA Tour.
Graeme McDowell, Dustin Johnson, Martin Kaymer, Sergio Garcia, Branden Grace, Louis Oosthuizen, Kevin Na, Charl Schwartzel and Lee Westwood were those who had moved to nullify the impact of the expected sanctions in advance of the LIV opener at Centurion.
The letter from the PGA Tour informing LIV Golf players they had been suspended following the breakaway’s inaugural event at the Centurion Club in St. Albans, England in June
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