If LIV Golf's biggest names eventually make their way back into the PGA Tour ecosystem, Billy Horschel believes Phil Mickelson will not be among them. Speaking on the Sky Sports Golf Podcast as discussion swirled around how reunification might play out following last week's announcement that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund will end its funding of LIV Golf after 2026, the Floridian veteran was unusually direct about who he thinks the door is, and is not, open for.
"I don't see a road for Phil Mickelson back to the PGA Tour, even though he's a lifetime member of the PGA Tour and he's done a lot and there is a lot of stuff that he said he did," Horschel said.
The phrasing matters. Horschel did not say Mickelson should not return — only that, in his view, the practical path to such a return does not exist. The 38-year-old's position is informed by years of observing the relationship between Mickelson and the tour deteriorate, from the six-time major winner's headline-making remarks about the PGA Tour's "obnoxious greed" in early 2022, to his pivot to LIV Golf, to his repeated public criticisms of tour leadership.
The wider thrust of Horschel's commentary, however, was not punitive. He argued that for the bulk of LIV's roster, the eventual settlement will be a workable one — even if the exact terms differ from any deal that might have been available to those players two years ago.
"If you have a price and that person doesn't agree, and then they come back, that offer is not still on the table," Horschel said. "That offer is going to change a bit."
The message there is straightforward: returning LIV players are unlikely to slide into the same financial structures they declined the first time, but there will be a structure. He doubled down on the broader optimism a moment later.
"There will be some form of a road for a lot of these guys," Horschel said.
"It's going to be nice that when all this is all said and done, there is not this sort of bickering back-and-forth," Horschel said. "Going forward, it is going to be nice to have the players who want to get back to playing PGA Tour golf, the guys that want to be back playing on the DP World Tour, under one big umbrella, is somewhat harmonious."
The context for the comments matters as much as the comments themselves. Mickelson, who is included in next week's PGA Championship field at Aronimink as a two-time tournament winner with a lifetime exemption to the major, is currently scheduled to skip this week's LIV Golf Virginia event, citing a family health matter. He has played only one LIV event in the 2026 season. None of that touches on his standing on the PGA Tour, where lifetime membership keeps him technically in the system regardless of his recent absences.
Horschel's view is that none of those technicalities change the underlying read. Mickelson has built a separate orbit, one rooted firmly in LIV, in commercial and broadcast ventures, and in his Hy Flyers GC team. Even with PIF's withdrawal looming, Horschel does not see the PGA Tour version of Phil Mickelson coming back. For one of the most decorated names in modern golf, the implication of a peer's assessment — delivered without malice but without softness — is that the back nine of his career will be played on the road he has already chosen.