LIV star responds as PGA Tour lays off huge | Golf News

The PGA Tour moved to trim its workforce on Thursday, laying off 56 full-time workers as half of a sweeping restructuring under its new for-profit model — a development that prompted an rapid response from one of LIV Golf’s most distinguished figures.

The cuts account for roughly 4 % of the golf tour’s global workforce, which totals more than 1,300 workers. Beyond the layoffs, 73 marketed open positions will also go unfilled.

The overhaul follows a Voluntary Retirement Program launched late last 12 months, in which 30 workers took half, and a review of the tour’s organizational construction carried out by FTI Consulting, a business advisory firm introduced on board at the end of 2025. The layoffs had been executed based on FTI’s suggestions.

Despite the workforce reductions, studies indicated that the group turned a revenue in 2025 and stays on firm financial ground, with plans to reinvest in more than 30 new full-time positions, including senior-level roles, in the weeks forward. The tour’s new for-profit construction was created through its 2023 partnership with the Strategic Sports Group, which dedicated to invest up to $3 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises, with an initial contribution of $1.5 billion for a valuation exceeding $12 billion.

Discussions with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which had been anticipated to co-invest, have stagnated since a White House assembly went poorly last spring, and the PIF revealed a new strategy last week centered on cutting worldwide spending, the same strategic pivot that allegedly prompted studies of LIV Golf shedding its Saudi funding after this season.

Against that backdrop stepped Ian Poulter, the Majestics co-captain and LIV stalwart, who responded to the layoffs with a be aware of sympathy before shifting to a wider argument about the game’s future.

“It’s not good to hear people losing their jobs,” Poulter wrote on X. “That’s not ideal for them at all. Hope they aren’t affected too bad and find roles elsewhere quickly. I heard the number was significantly larger, hopefully not true.”

Poulter has been among LIV’s most outspoken supporters since becoming a member of the breakaway circuit at its inaugural event in 2022, and he leveraged the tour’s current upheaval to make the case for a nearer relationship between the 2 organizations.

Speaking on ‘The Rough Cut Golf Podcast,’ he contended that LIV’s workforce format offered a natural entry level for PGA Tour involvement. “There’s an opportunity to have two or three more teams in LIV,” he said. “Why couldn’t they be PGA Tour teams? Why couldn’t you give 12 players – the top 12 or the 12 who want to play a certain number of events?”

Highlighting the mounting financial pressure on the tour as a catalyst for both events to attain an settlement, he famous: “The PGA Tour are shortening the schedule. They need to monetize their business as soon as possible. There’s a lot of stress and pressure to the PGA Tour for them to make this make money.”