Thomas Pieters has settled the question of whether he is part of the LIV-to-PGA Tour reunification fantasy. He is not. Speaking on the Dan on Golf Show in the wake of last week's news that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund will end its funding of LIV Golf after the 2026 season, the Belgian was unusually direct about how he would react if the breakaway league folded — and where he would not be playing afterwards.
"I'm definitely never going back to the PGA Tour," Pieters said. "I've never liked that life. I tried it and I just wasn't happy there."
The assessment was delivered without rancour but without any softening either, and it cuts hard against a narrative that has built up since the PIF news broke — the assumption that LIV's leading lights, faced with a contracting purse pool, will quietly file paperwork to rejoin the PGA Tour fold. For Pieters, who joined LIV in 2023 after several seasons on the European and PGA Tours, the choice between LIV and a tour he has already left is no choice at all.
The 33-year-old described the immediate atmosphere among LIV players in the hours after the PIF announcement broke as bleak.
"It wasn't pleasant. The atmosphere was very grim," Pieters said. "I had enough of it after three or four hours. Everybody talking about it, everybody's checking Twitter every two seconds."
That night, he made a phone call home that suggests just how seriously he was taking the prospect of LIV simply ceasing to operate.
"On Tuesday evening I called home and I was like, 'I'm ready to retire on Monday if they really pull the plug that quick,'" Pieters said.
"I was ready to retire two years ago, and ever since everything's a bonus for me," he said. "I'm good at golf and I love it but it's going to end at some point."
While a full retirement scenario would only come into play if LIV ceased to exist, Pieters did concede there are realistic alternative homes for his career — provided the numbers add up. He pointed to the DP World Tour as a possibility, particularly given proximity to his European base.
"We are just guessing right now, but if we're playing for $5 million next year or I could play on the DP World Tour for $3 million but be close to home, that's something I'd have to look at," Pieters said.
The wider implication for golf's ongoing reunification negotiations is significant. While much of the public discussion has centred on which star LIV players will or will not be welcomed back to PGA Tour membership, Pieters' comments are a reminder that the choice is not one-way. Some LIV players, when asked whether they want to return at all, are answering with a clear no — and saying so publicly weeks before the PGA Tour and PIF are expected to formalise next steps. For Pieters, the era of speculation about his future destination appears to be over before it began.