I was early LIV Golf defector now Im banned from | Golf News

Hudson Swafford, an early high-profile defector to LIV Golf in 2022, says he now has a five-year ban from the PGA Tour, making him ineligible to return until 2027.

The three-time PGA Tour victor, who was demoted from LIV Golf after an underwhelming 2024 season, shared the suspension particulars and his confusion over its size on Golf. com’s SubPar podcast.

“I don’t know how you can come up with a five or five‐and‐a‐half year suspension based on I played five events while the PGA Tour season was going on in ’22 that I wasn’t able to get media-released for,” he expressed.

Swafford factors out that his scenario is exclusive in contrast to other LIV Golf gamers like Laurie Canter or James Piot, who acquired one-year bans before being allowed back into PGA-sanctioned occasions, due to his prior PGA membership and participation during the common tour schedule. This revelation coincides with LIV Golf’s plans to considerably enhance event purses in 2026.

“Some guys who didn’t have any status … it’s a hard one‐year [suspension] … but then you can come back and play,” he famous. Swafford, however, questions his future prospects, pondering, “But the problem is… if I can come back and play in ’27, what does ’27 on the PGA Tour really look like?”.

Swafford identified that the extended suspension appears to coincide with particular contract durations: “They’ve said I’m suspended until [January] 2027, which I know they’re basing on a couple people’s contracts being up after the ’26 season, so then they can kind of change rules in favor of everybody coming back.”

The contracts of LIV Golf gamers Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka are certainly set to conclude following the 2026 season.

Swafford mirrored on his transfer to LIV Golf, acknowledging he anticipated some backlash but was stunned by the extent of it: “We knew there would be some repercussions. I knew I’d be suspended for a little while. Didn’t know how long. … I didn’t think it would be this fractured this long.”

After spending a lot of 2023 recovering from hip surgical procedure and being thought-about only as a wildcard in 2024, Swafford is trying into methods to make a comeback through Q-School or Monday qualifiers, despite his world rating plummeting below the top 2,400 due to lack of play.

He expressed disappointment concerning LIV Golf’s unsuccessful bid to get hold of Official World Golf Ranking factors, recounting a dialogue with former OWGR chairman Peter Dawson where he had hoped for LIV’s inclusion.

Swafford lamented the choice to pull LIV’s software for rating factors, feeling let down by the group: “We’re giving up?” he questioned. “We came over on the consensus that you were going to fight for us no matter what.”

Swafford’s scenario stands in stark distinction to that of other ex-LIV golfers who have taken legal motion against the PGA Tour for antitrust violations and managed to come back through exemptions or PR campaigns. Swafford, however, described his own negotiation course of as “wishy‐washy” and lamented that nothing is “set in stone.”

He concluded with an optimistic view on the potential for reconciliation: “As a golf fan, you want to see the best playing together. I don’t think this fracture is good for the game.”