LIV Golf Was Just Dealt Another Big Blow by a Former Major Championship Winner

While the future of LIV Golf remains dodgy at best, the league was dealt another big blow on Wednesday when Louis Oosthuizen announced he is leaving to join the DP World Tour.

The 2010 British Open champion was the captain of the Southern Guards GC team ever since joining LIV Golf in 2022. His departure comes just a few days before a deadline in which players must decide if they are going to return for LIV Golf 2.0 or say goodbye to a league that is no longer funded by Saudi Arabia.

Oosthuizen joins a list of other big-name players, including fellow major championship winners Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia, who have decided to take their talents elsewhere. That list also includes Brooks Koepka, who left last December, and Patrick Reed, who left last January.

"Five years ago, I made one of the best decisions of my life, moving away from the traditional golf world and into something very special with LIV Golf and Southern Guards GC," Oosthuizen said in a statement. "I'm the biggest supporter of team golf and always will be. Golf needs more of it. I realized I have a lot more in me, and my biggest fear was that the schedule on LIV 2.0 would be tough to manage," Oosthuizen said. "I feel I have a few more years of good, competitive golf left in me, and the only way to be really sharp and competitive is through a schedule I control."

While Oosthuizen is a bit past his prime at the age of 44, he’s still a big loss for LIV Golf as the league needs to keep as many well-known names on their roster in order to keep any remaining fans interested in the future of their product.

LIV Golf filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month and is still working on securing funding to keep the league alive and have a 2027 season.

A look at the other big-name players who are leaving LIV Golf

Jon Rahm

Rahm was one of the biggest gets for LIV Golf when made the jump from the PGA Tour in 2023 and now he’s their biggest loss after he decided earlier this month to leave.

“Mr. Rahm has independently reviewed the proposed terms of LIV 2.0 … and has determined that those terms are unacceptable to him, and he will not be participating going forward in LIV 2.0,” Rahm’s lawyer stated during a bankruptcy hearing on Oct. 7.

Rahm was the No. 3 player in the world when he left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf and he had hoped that his move would lead to the two tours coming together. That never happened and now the golf world waits to see where he will play in 2027. An immediate return to the PGA Tour isn’t likely in the cards, though you can’t rule it out. If that doesn’t happen, expect to see him playing on the DP World Tour.

Sergio Garcia

Garcia, who won the Masters in 2017, had his contract with LIV Golf terminated earlier this month after he made the request so he could look for other places to play. Garcia won just two events during his time with LIV Golf.

Other stars who could leave LIV Golf

A lot of the players on the LIV Golf 1.0 roster have had their contracts rejected or terminated so they can explore other places to play. Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith and Dustin Johnson are included on that list but haven’t made any official decisions yet about whether or not they will continue on with LIV Golf 2.0.

The four players who have officially said they will remain with LIV Golf

This list of players is, in a word, rough. Richard Bland, Cameron Tringale, Brendan Steele and Ben Campbell have announced they will be sticking around for LIV Golf 2.0, which says a lot about how the future of this league will look. None of those four players have won a major championship and would struggle to find a place to continue their careers if they decided to walk away.