Hudson Swafford, who was relegated off the LIV Golf League after playing for three seasons, said he will not be able to rejoin the PGA Tour before 2027, having been hit with a suspension that covers a five-year period from when he first started with the rival circuit in 2022.
Swafford, 37, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour who had hoped to come back to the PGA Tour after sitting out this year, told the Golf.com Subpar podcast that he’s “had some good back and forth with the PGA Tour, but then some wishy-washy. It’s still not set in stone.”
As a past winner, it is possible that Swafford could get some starts as part of a past champions category.
But he told podcast host Colt Knost that he believes he is being penalized one year for each of the five tournaments he played via LIV Golf in 2022 for which he did not receive a conflicting-events release before he resigned his membership.
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He also said he believes that 2027 might be tied to other LIV player contracts expiring.
“I know they’re basing that on a couple people’s contracts being up after the ’26 season,” Swafford said, referring to LIV golfers. “So then they can kind of change rules in favor of everybody coming back.
“I know some guys who didn’t have any status on the PGA Tour, it’s a hard one-year [suspension], not PGA Tour-sanctioned events, but then you can come back and play. But problem is if I come in and talk to them, it’s like, ‘O.K., I can come back and play in ’27, but what does ’27 on the PGA Tour really look like?’
“It is no more opposite field events? They’re already reducing fields. So I would go ahead and bet and say that the past champions category is pretty much done going forward after this year. We can agree or disagree. but it just seems like that and they’ve kind of told me.”
Swafford would be eligible for very few events and said he could try to Monday qualify, but figured he’d basically having to wait for the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament late in 2027.
“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 said.
Swafford said the decision to go to LIV Golf in 2022 was not an easy one. He agonized over it. (He missed most of 2023 with a hip injury). But he felt that the disruption was good for the game, and that the PGA Tour needed to change some of its ways—issues he said had been prevalent and talked about among players over the years.
“We knew there would be some repercussions,” he said when asked if he believed he’d be suspended when playing in the first LIV Golf event in June 2022. “Knew I’d be suspended for a little while. Didn’t know how long. There were definitely some unknowns there. I didn’t think it would be this fractured this long, to be honest with you. I don’t think any of us did.
“I still think it needs to come together. I don’t know how it’s going to come together. As a golf fan, you want to see the best playing together. I don’t think this fracture is good for the game. But on the flip side, the PGA Tour needed to be shanked up a bit.”
Swafford was one of 11 LIV golfers in 2022 which sued the PGA Tour for antitrust violations in the wake of their suspensions for playing on the rival circuit. Swafford, Talor Gooch and Matt Jones also filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to play in that year’s FedEx Cup playoffs, as they were inside the top 125 in points by virtue of their play before leaving for LIV. The motion was denied.
On the podcast, Swafford said he generally liked the LIV Golf team format and limited tournaments. His biggest frustration was with a lack of Official World Golf Ranking accreditation, which LIV had sought, then was denied and gave up—and has now reapplied.
In the spring of 2024, LIV Golf announced—after getting rejected by OWGR in the fall of 2023—that it was withdrawing its application. According to Swafford, LIV players were not happy about it.
“We’re giving up?” Swafford said was the reaction at a player’s meeting.
LIV Golf was told by OWGR officials in 2023 that its lack of player pathways and relegation off the league were among the factors for being denied.
