Golfer in line to get PGA Tour card back after £1.5m LIV Golf disaster | Golf | Sport

Laurie Canter is on the brink of regaining his PGA Tour card for next year with just two European Tour events remaining. The former LIV Golf player currently sits ninth in the Race to Dubai rankings ahead of next month’s pair of playoff events.

Canter, who will have his 36th birthday days before the forthcoming Abu Dhabi Championship, came in joint second place with Nacho Elvira at the Genesis Championship last week, propelling him five places up the rankings. He had maintained a top ten position since mid-January before slipping out in October.

A spectacular 100-foot putt for an eagle on the par-5, 570-yard 18th hole in South Korea saw Canter amass 433.5 points. That marks the highest point tally he has achieved from a single event since his victory at the Bahrain Championship in early February.

Reflecting on his recent performance and struggles, Canter told Sky Sports: “We play such a frustrating game, and I feel like at the beginning of the year I felt like I had a lot of momentum and had it on a piece of string, and [since] then, it has been hard work; I have felt like I am paddling upstream for six to eight months.

“I fell out of the PGA Tour card race this week, so that was on my mind. I wanted to go to the playoffs and feel like I am not playing with a gun to my head, totally I can go out and embrace the chance to go and get one of those cards.”

Robert MacIntyre (sixth) and Rory McIlroy (first) are two players already exempt inside the top 10. At the same time, Tyrell Hatton, in third, remains ineligible for a PGA Tour membership as a LIV Golf player, meaning that qualification currently extends down to the 13th.

If Canter maintains his place in those rankings, he would become the first former LIV player to regain their Tour card. He was suspended and fined after defecting in 2022, but has not played on the breakaway tour since early last year.

The new world number 68 pocketed around £4.5million during two seasons with LIV but failed to win a qualifying event to retain his spot for a third consecutive year after missing a two-putt five-footer on the final hole, costing him £1.5million. After serving a seven-week suspension, Canter returned to the DP World Tour in 2023, and LIV also paid £725,000 in fines on his behalf.

Last year, he narrowly missed qualifying, finishing 16th among the non-exempt players; however, he was ineligible for a year following his last LIV Golf event, which took place on February 10, 2023. That ended just in time for Canter to qualify for The Players Championship as one of the world’s top 50-ranked eligible players.

In doing so, he became the first former LIV golfer to play a PGA Tour event. Now, Canter is just a few successful weeks away from becoming the first player welcomed back for at least a whole year in 2026.