Patrick Reed to return to PGA Tour from LIV Golf in late ’26

Former Masters champion Patrick Reed is leaving the LIV Golf league and plans to return to the PGA Tour later this season, he confirmed to ESPN on Wednesday.

Reed, who won his only major championship at the 2018 Masters, resigned from the PGA Tour shortly after joining the Saudi-funded tour in June 2022.

“I loved my time on LIV,” Reed told ESPN. “I became a different person thanks to the friendships I made with the players. Family is my priority and playing closer to them is what really matters. I can’t get days back.”

The PGA Tour said Reed would be eligible to return to the tour on Aug. 25, nearly a year after he last played in a LIV golf event. This would make Reed eligible to compete in FedEx Cup Fall events.

“I’m a traditionalist at heart and was born to play on the PGA TOUR,” Reed wrote in a social media post on X. “I can’t wait to go back and revisit some of the best places on the planet.”

After careful consideration, my family and I have decided that I will no longer participate in the LIV Golf Tour.

I am excited to announce that I am returning to the PGA TOUR as a Past Champion Member for the 2027 season and am eligible to begin competing on the PGA TOUR… pic.twitter.com/LFq61njCrh

-Patrick Reed (@PReedGolf) January 28, 2026

As a non-member, Reed will attempt to enter the FedEx Cup Fall fields this season via open qualifiers and sponsor exemptions.

Reed requested that his PGA Tour membership be reinstated for the 2027 season as a former champion. He can improve his status for next season by winning a tournament this fall or finishing in the top 10 in the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai; he is currently #2 in points.

“I always saw myself coming back to the PGA Tour,” Reed said. “I know I have to earn my way back, and I’m okay with that.”

As part of Reed’s deal to return, he will lose player equity in PGA Tour Enterprises through 2030.

Reed will be eligible for the captain’s choice on the 2026 United States Presidents Cup team.

LIV Golf said in a statement that it was “grateful” for Reed’s time with the league, while advocating for player movement in golf’s “new normal.”

Official statement from LIV Golf.

Long LIV Golf. pic.twitter.com/FT24GzM5hU

– LIVGolf (@livgolf_league) January 28, 2026

In a memo sent to PGA Tour members on Wednesday, Chief Competitions Officer Tyler Dennis and Chief Player Officer Jason Gore wrote: “We remain committed to strengthening the PGA Tour, serving our fans and welcoming players who wish to return through a consistent, policy-based process. player by player.”

Following Reed’s four-shot victory at the Dubai Desert Classic on Sunday, he revealed that he had not yet finalized his contract with LIV Golf and was a free agent “for the moment.”

“After I won, I realized how much I missed the work and the dogfights; it’s who I am,” Reed said.

Reed, 35, is scheduled to compete this week in the Bahrain Championship on the DP World Tour, where he has made 10 starts in 2025. He also plays on the Asian circuit.

Ranked 29th in the Official World Golf Rankings, Reed is virtually guaranteed to start in all four majors; he has a lifetime exemption to compete in the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club.

LIV Golf announced on January 14 that two-time major champion Dustin Johnson had agreed to a multi-year contract extension and indicated that Reed would return to the 4Aces, joining Johnson, Thomas Detry and Thomas Pieters.

That’s no longer the case, and it wasn’t immediately clear who would replace Reed on the 4Aces.

The LIV Golf season begins February 4 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Reed is the second LIV Golf star to return to the PGA Tour in the past three weeks.

On January 12, five-time major champion Brooks Koepka returned through a new returning member program, open only to golfers who have won one of the four majors or the Players Championship since 2022.

“I think that says more about Brooks than anything else,” reigning Masters champion Rory McIlroy told reporters after Monday night’s TGL match. “He’s obviously a very competitive person and he wants to compete at the highest level. I think he made the decision that he thought competing at the highest level meant coming back to the PGA Tour.

“You’ve seen others say it recently. Patrick Reed said it in Dubai last week. It seems like maybe some of these guys are starting to realize that they’re not getting everything they wanted by going there, and that’s obviously a good thing for the PGA Tour.”

Koepka will make his first start at this week’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, California.

LIV Golf team captains Bryson DeChambeau (2024 US Open), Jon Rahm (2023 Masters) and Cameron Smith (2022 Players Championship, Open Championship) are the other LIV golfers eligible to return under certain conditions, but they have said they will not leave this season and the PGA Tour is not expecting their return at this time.

“The tour offered a path back for guys and Patrick could be the first to get over it,” Adam Scott, director of players for the PGA Tour’s policy board, said Wednesday. “The other one was created for a small group of people. I guess maybe that continues to happen just with the way the LIV tour is structured, [players] within the framework of contracts. The guys’ contracts are going to end, so I feel good about the tour because we had a policy in place that is now being used and is hopefully working well. “

PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said the window for LIV golfers to apply for reinstatement under the program closes Monday.

In the memo sent to PGA Tour members by Dennis and Gore, they noted that three former LIV golfers – Kevin Na, Pat Perez and Hudson Swafford – have reinstated their tour memberships, but face outstanding disciplinary violations.

Perez and Swafford are eligible to return January 1, 2027; Dennis and Gore said additional information on Na’s return would be released later.

“Go back a few years, think about how cutthroat it was with LIV and a time when we were wondering if the future of our tour was secure,” Maverick McNealy, a member of the tour’s player advisory board, told ESPN.

“I think we’re all absolutely thrilled that now it really feels like this is the place to play at the highest level of golf. I think that’s what’s happened over the last few weeks. So more than anything, I think individual decisions aside, I think the players as a whole are really excited about his strength and his trajectory on tour.”