Former Masters champion Patrick Reed is leaving the LIV Golf league and plans to return to the PGA Tour later this season, he confirmed to ESPN on Wednesday.
Reed, who won his lone major championship at the 2018 Masters, resigned from the PGA Tour shortly after joining the Saudi Arabian-financed circuit in June 2022.
“I loved my time on LIV,” Reed told ESPN. “I became a different person because of the friendships with players I’ve made. Family is my priority and playing closer to them is what really matters. I can’t get days back.”
The PGA Tour said Reed will be eligible to return to the circuit on Aug. 25, almost a year after he last competed in a LIV Golf event. That would make Reed eligible to compete in FedEx Cup Fall events.
“I’m a traditionalist at heart, and I was born to play on the PGA TOUR,” Reed wrote in a social media post on X. “I can’t wait to get back out there and revisit some of the best places on earth.”
After careful thought and consideration, my family and I have decided that I will no longer compete on the LIV Golf Tour.
I am excited to announce that I am returning to the PGA TOUR as a past champion member for the 2027 season and am eligible to begin competing in PGA TOUR… pic.twitter.com/LFq61njCrh
— Patrick Reed (@PReedGolf) January 28, 2026
As a non-member, Reed will attempt to get into FedEx Cup Fall fields this season through open qualifiers and sponsor exemptions.
Reed has requested that his PGA Tour membership be reinstated for the 2027 season as a past champion. He can improve his status for next season by winning a tournament this fall or finishing in the top 10 of the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai; he is currently No. 2 in points.
“I always saw myself coming back to the PGA Tour,” Reed said. “I know I have to earn my way back, and I’m OK with that.”
As part of Reed’s agreement to come back, he will forfeit player equity in PGA Tour Enterprises through 2030.
Reed will be eligible for a captain’s pick on the 2026 U.S. Presidents Cup team.
In a memo sent to PGA Tour members on Wednesday, chief competitions officer Tyler Dennis and chief player officer Jason Gore wrote, “We remain committed to strengthening the PGA Tour, serving our fans and welcoming back players who wish to return through a consistent, policy-based process. We want to ensure fairness to our current members while maintaining competitive integrity and transparency in how we apply the Regulations and non-member policies to former PGA Tour members who seek reinstatement-and to be clear, reinstatement terms are not negotiated or modified on a player-by-player basis.”
After Reed’s four-stroke victory in the Dubai Desert Classic on Sunday, he revealed that he hadn’t yet finalized his contract with LIV Golf and was a free agent “at the moment.”
“After winning, I realized just how much I missed the grind and the dogfight; that’s who I am,” Reed said.
Reed, 35, is scheduled to play in this week’s Bahrain Championship on the DP World Tour, where he made 10 starts in 2025. He also plays on the Asian Tour.
Ranked 29th in the Official World Golf Ranking, Reed is all but assured of getting starts in the four majors; he has a lifetime exemption to compete in the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club.
LIV Golf announced Jan. 14 that two-time major champion Dustin Johnson had agreed to a multiyear contract extension and indicated Reed would be returning to the 4Aces, joining Johnson, Thomas Detry and Thomas Pieters.
That is no longer the case, and it wasn’t immediately clear who will replace Reed on the 4Aces.
LIV Golf’s season tees off Feb. 4 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Reed is the second LIV Golf star to return to the PGA Tour in the past three weeks.
On Jan. 12, five-time major champion Brooks Koepka came back through a new Returning Member Program, which is only open to golfers who have won one of the four majors or the Players Championship since 2022.
“I think it says more about Brooks than anything else,” reigning Masters champion Rory McIlroy told reporters after Monday night’s TGL match. “He obviously is a very competitive person and wants to compete at the highest level. I think he made the decision that he thought competing at the highest level meant coming back to the PGA Tour.
“You’ve seen others say this recently. Patrick Reed said it in Dubai last week. It seems like some of those guys are maybe starting to realize that they’re not getting everything that they wanted out of going over there, and that’s obviously a great thing for the PGA Tour.”
Koepka will make his first start at this week’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, California.
LIV Golf team captains Bryson DeChambeau (2024 U.S. Open), Jon Rahm (2023 Masters) and Cameron Smith (2022 Players Championship, Open Championship) are the other LIV golfers eligible to return under certain conditions, but they’ve said they’re not leaving this season and the PGA Tour does not expect their return this season.
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said the window for LIV golfers to apply for reinstatement under the program closes Monday.
In the memo sent to PGA Tour members by Dennis and Gore, they noted that three former LIV golfers — Kevin Na, Pat Perez and Hudson Swafford — have reinstated their tour memberships, but are facing outstanding disciplinary violations.
Perez and Swafford are eligible to return Jan. 1, 2027; Dennis and Gore said additional information about Na’s return would be released at a later date.
“Go back a couple years, think about how really cutthroat it was with LIV and how there was a time when we were wondering whether our tour’s future was secure,” Maverick McNealy, a member of the tour’s player advisory council, told ESPN.
“I think we’re all absolutely thrilled that now, this really feels like the place to play the highest level of golf. I think that’s what’s happened the last couple of weeks. So more than anything, I think individual decisions aside, I think the players on the whole are just really excited about his strength and trajectory of the tour.”
