Louis Oosthuizen Leaves LIV Golf and Plans a DP World Tour Return in 2027

Louis Oosthuizen announced on Wednesday that he will not re-sign with LIV Golf and will play the DP World Tour in 2027 instead. The 44-year-old has captained Southern Guards GC since LIV’s first event in June 2022, and his statement said the LIV 2.0 schedule would be tough to manage. His exit lands four days before the Oct 25 deadline for players to commit to the relaunched league.

What did Oosthuizen announce on Wednesday?

He announced the end of his LIV career in a statement published on his social channels on Wednesday, Oct 21. The post confirmed that he will not re-sign with LIV Golf for its next chapter and will play the DP World Tour in 2027. Business Day reports the return starts in January 2027.

Oosthuizen was one of the first players to join LIV in 2022 and played in its inaugural event that June. He has captained Southern Guards GC, the all South African team of Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace and Dean Burmester, for the league’s entire existence. Reuters reported that LIV had been contacted for confirmation of the departure and that Oosthuizen was still listed as the team’s captain on the league’s website at check time.

Why is he leaving a team he calls his own?

His statement gives the answer in scheduling terms. He said he realised he has a lot more competitive golf in him, and that his biggest fear was the LIV 2.0 schedule proving tough to manage. The only way to stay sharp, he said, is a schedule he controls.

Speaking to the South China Morning Post ahead of this week’s Hong Kong Open, he put the same point in travel terms, as Reuters reported. “I need to arrange my own schedule and look after my body,” the 44-year-old said. “I want to play near one spot for three weeks at a time, not have all the big travelling for one tournament.” His closing line to the paper was short: “I loved LIV and the team aspect, but it’s time to move on.”

None of this reads as a falling out. He called joining LIV one of the best decisions of his life and said he remains the biggest supporter of team golf. He called Southern Guards his team, and the decision the hardest of his career. He also picked out the league’s South African debut at Steyn City in March, where Southern Guards finished second in front of a home crowd, as one of the best things he has done in the game.

What does he gain on the DP World Tour?

A route back to the weeks he wants, and to the majors. Oosthuizen won the 2010 Open Championship at St Andrews and has 11 DP World Tour wins. He has also finished runner-up at least once in each of the other three majors, five runner-up finishes in all, most recently at the 2021 PGA Championship and the 2021 U.S. Open.

His 2010 win exempts him into The Open through the age of 60. That matters next July, when The Open returns to St Andrews, the course where he won by seven shots. GOLF.com notes he has significant work to do to qualify for the other 2027 majors. His world ranking has fallen to 539 since he joined LIV, from a career high of 4, and LIV events have not rebuilt it. A DP World Tour schedule gives him ranking weeks he can choose himself, which is the practical version of the schedule control he keeps naming.

Readers following the wider standoff will recognise the other side of this choice. The DP World Tour has told players that anyone who plays LIV 2.0 gives up 2027 membership, a ruling covered in the Tour’s choice for LIV players. Oosthuizen has now made that choice in the Tour’s direction.

Where does his exit leave LIV before the deadline?

Shorter again. LIV filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sept 8, after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund said in April that it was cutting funding. The league has since taken investment from BC Partners Credit, the restructuring covered in LIV’s $300m lifeline and the Oct 25 deadline, and it has to decide this month whether it winds down or goes ahead as LIV 2.0. Players have a soft deadline of Oct 25 to say whether they are in.

Oosthuizen is not the first name out. Jon Rahm and Adrian Meronk have already announced they will not return in 2027. Rahm’s exit came through a separation agreement with the bankruptcy estate, covered in Rahm’s LIV separation. Sergio Garcia’s contract was terminated at his lawyers’ request in early October. More than a dozen contracts, Bryson DeChambeau’s among them, have been rejected through the bankruptcy process, which frees those players to leave or to negotiate fresh terms. Younger players are weighing the same call, as Joaquin Niemann’s position shows, and Meronk’s own future was already a live story in his Dunhill win coverage.

What makes Oosthuizen different in that list is the captaincy. Rahm was the bigger player. Oosthuizen was the league’s South African anchor, the captain of its only single-nation team and the face of its most successful new market. Losing him costs LIV a team identity as well as a player, four days before it asks everyone else to commit.

What is still unknown?

Three things, and this page will not guess at any of them. LIV had not confirmed the departure in the coverage checked on Wednesday. No successor captain for Southern Guards had been named. And there was no word on whether Schwartzel, Grace or Burmester will follow their captain out or stay for whatever LIV 2.0 becomes. The Oct 25 deadline will answer the shape of that, one way or the other.