Thomas Detry and Elvis Smylie are set to join LIV Golf amid the breakaway league’s struggle to lure big names for the 2026 season.
With less than a month remaining until the LIV’s opening event in Saudi Arabia in February, the biggest news to emerge during a turbulent off-season was five-times major champion Brooks Koepka’s decision to quit the league, despite having a year remaining on the nine-figure contract he signed in 2022.
However, it is understood that Detry is set to become the highest-profile signing by the league of the winter thus far. While certainly not in the same bracket as Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, who were the last genuine stars to join LIV two years ago, the 32-year-old is a solid addition to the league.
Smylie finished 23rd in the Race to Dubai standings
JOSH CHADWICK/GETTY IMAGES
Detry, the world No57, became the first Belgian to win a PGA Tour event when he stormed to a seven-shot victory at the WM Phoenix Open last February and he finished 44th in the FedEx Cup standings after making 19 cuts in 24 events.
Smylie, the world No127, finished 23rd in the Race to Dubai standings on the DP World Tour season. The 23-year-old from Queensland won the Australian PGA Championship in November 2024, where he staved off compatriot and Open champion Cameron Smith.
It would appear likely that he will now join Smith’s all-Australian Ripper GC franchise. Matt Jones, the fourth member of the team last season, is listed in the field for the LIV Promotions event taking place in Florida this week, where three players out of 83 will earn status on LIV for the 2026 season.
There remains several spots for LIV to fill in the coming weeks after the league expanded its field to 57 players for the coming season, along with reverting to a traditional 72-hole format, as part of its long-running bid to gain Official World Golf Ranking points.
LIV has already signed Laurie Canter, who passed up a PGA Tour card to rejoin the league, and three-times DP World Tour winner Victor Perez this winter, but the kind of lavish nine-figure signing-on fees previously used to recruit the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Rahm and Koepka seem to be a thing of the past.
DeChambeau, LIV’s biggest star, is currently in negotiations to extend his contact, which expires at the end of this year. It is thought that Koepka is keen to return to the PGA Tour but will have to serve a suspension before being eligible to regain his membership, despite the fact he has always remained on good terms with many of the top PGA Tour players.
Speaking about the possibility of Koepka’s return, Rory McIlroy said: “Does it make sense if Brooks wanted to play the PGA Tour again to get him back as soon as possible? Absolutely. What Brooks has done in the game of golf, it would be good for everyone to have him back.
“It’s hard [because] you can’t treat one person differently than you treat others. And as much as the Tour would like to treat Brooks differently, it sets a legal precedent, because of the lawsuits that have been going on and everything else behind the scenes.
“He’s still exempt on Tour because of his major wins. That’s not the hurdle. The hurdle is how they have treated others that have tried to come back, serve suspensions, or whatever it is. That’s the difficult thing.”
